Little fishers and their nets

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NORMAN WAS A HANDSOME BOY WHEN SHE MARRIED MK. DECKER. 17

Little Fishers: and Their Nets

BT

PANSY

AUTHOR OV "CHBISTIZ'S CHRISTMAS," "A HEDGK FENCE," " GEB-
TBUDE'S DIABY," "THE MAN OF THE HOUSE," "INTER-
RUPTED," " THE HALL IN THE GBOVE," " AN ENDLESS

CHAIN," "MRS. SOLOMON SMITH LOOKING

ON," " FOUR GIRLS AT CHAUTAUQUA,"

" KUTH ERSKINE'S CROSSES,"

" arm* FROM FACT,"

ETC., ETC.

ILLUSTRATED

BOSTON

D LOTHROP COMPANY

FIUXKLIN AJJD HAWLEY STREETS

COPYRIGHT 1887

BY
LOTHROP COMPANY

P2,

7

CONTENTS.

PACT.

CHAPTER I.
THE DECKERS' HOME 7

CHAPTER II.
BEGINNING HER LIFE 24

CHAPTER m.
THE TRUTH is TOLD 43

CHAPTER IV.
NEW FRIENDS 63

CHAPTER V.
A GREAT UNDERTAKING 85

CHAPTER VL

HOW IT SUCCEEDED 106

CHAPTER VII.
LONG STORIES TO TELL 125

CHAPTER VHI.

A SABBATH TO REMEMBER 143

iii

622707

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IX.
A BABGAIN AND A PEOMISE 164

CHAPTER X.
PLEASUBE AND DISAPPOINTMENT 179

CHAPTER XI.
A COMPLETE SUCCESS 204

CHAPTER XII.

AN UNEXPECTED HELPEE 208

CHAPTER XIII.

THE LITTLE PlCTUEE MAKEBS 240

CHAPTER XIV.
THE CONCEET 257

CHAPTER XV.
A WILL AND A WAT 271

CHAPTER XVI.
AN OEDEAL 288

CHAPTER XVII.
THE FLOWEE PAETY 230

CHAPTER XVHI.

A SATISFACTOBY EVENING 318

CHAPTER XIX.
READY TO TBY . . . .332

CONTENTS,

CHAPTER XX.
THE WAT MADE PLAIN 349

CHAPTER XXI.

THE NEW ENTERPRISE 363

CHAPTER XXII.

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE 380

CHAPTER XXIII.
THE CROWNING WONDER 398

CHAPTER XXIV.
THE PAST AND PRESENT 416

Little Fishers: and Their Nets.

CHAPTER I.

THE DECKERS' HOME.

TOE DECKER gave his chair a noisy shove
^ backward from the table, over the uneven
floor, shambled across the space between it and
the kitchen door, a look of intense disgust on his
face, then stopped for his good-morning speech :

" You may as well know, first as last, that
I've sent for Nan. I've stood this kind of
thing just exactly as long as I'm going to.
There ain't many men, I can tell you, who would
have stood it so long. Such a meal as that!
Ain't fit for a decent dog !

"Nan is coining in the afternoon stage.
There must be some place fixed up for her to
sleep in. Understand, now, that has got to be
done, and I won't have no words about it."

Then he slammed the door, and went away.
7

8 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

Yes, he was talking to his wife ! She could
remember the time when he used to linger in
the door, talking to her, so many last words to
say, and when at last lie would turn away with
a kind " Well, good-by, Mary ! Don't work too
hard."

But that seemed ages ago to the poor woman
who was left this morning in the wretched lit-
tle room with the door slammed between her
and her husband. She did not look as though
she had life enough left to make words about
anything. She sat in a limp heap in one of the
broken chairs, her bared arms lying between
the folds of a soiled and ragged apron.

Not an old woman, yet her hair was gray, and
her cheeks were faded, and her eyes looked as
though they had not closed in quiet restful
sleep for months. She had not combed her hair
that morning ; and thin and faded as it was, it
hung in straggling locks about her face.

I don't suppose you ever saw a kitchen just like
that one ! It was heated, not only by the fierce
sun which streamed in at the two uncurtained
eastern windows, but by the big old stove,
which could smoke, not only, and throw out an
almost unendurable heat on a warm morning

THE DECREES' HOME. 9

like this, when heat was not wanted, but had a
way at all times of refusing to heat the oven,
and indeed had fits of sullenness when it would
not " draw " at all.

This was one of the mornings when the fire
had chosen to burn ; it had swallowed the legs
and back of a rickety chair which the mistress
in desperation had stuffed in, when she was
waiting for the teakettle to boil, and now that
there was nothing to boil, or fry, and no need
for heat, the stump of wood, wet by yesterday's
rain, had dried itself and chosen to burn.

The west windows opened into a side yard,
and the sound of children's voices in angry dis-
pute, and the smell of a pigsty, came in to-
gether, and seemed equally discouraging to the
wilted woman in the chair.

The sun was already pretty high in the sky,
yet the breakfast-table still stood in the middle
of the room.

I don't know as I can describe that table to
you. It was a square one, unpainted, and
stained with something red, and something
green, and spotted with grease, and spotted with
black, rubbed from endless hot kettles set on
it, or else from one kettle set on it endless

10 LITTLE FISHEKS I AND THEIR NETS.

times ; it must have been that way, for now that
I think of it, there was but one kettle in that
house. No tablecloth covered the stains ; there
was a cracked plate which held a few crusts of
very stale bread, and a teacup about a third full
of molasses, in which several flies were strug-
gling. More flies covered the bread crusts, and
swam in a little mess of what had been butter,
but was now oil, and these were the only signs
of food.

It was from this breakfast-table that the man
had risen in disgust. You don't wonder ? You
think it was enough to disgust anybody ? That
is certainly true, but if the man had only stopped
to think that the reason it presented such an
appearance was because he had steadily drank
up all that ought to have gone on it during the
months past, perhaps he would have turned his
disgust where it belonged — on himself.

The woman had not tried to eat anything.
She had given the best she had to the husband
and son, and had left it for them. She was very
willing to do so. It seemed to her as though
she never could eat another mouthful of any-
thing.

Can you think of her, sitting in that broken

Til' 11

chair midway betv .ie stove,

the heat from the stove v.- ' > her face,

the heat from the sun pouring full on her back,
hei straggling hair silvery in the sunlight, her
short, faded calico dress frayed about the ankles,
her leet showing plainly from the holes of the
slipper" into which they were thrust, her hands
folded about the soiled apron, and such a look
of utter hopeless sorrow on her face as cannot
be described ?

No, I hope you cannot imagine a woman like
her, and will never see one to help you paint the
picture. And yet I don't know; since there
are such women — scores of them, thousands of
them — why should you not know about them,
and begin now to plan ways of helping them out
of these kitchens, and out of these sorrows ?

Mrs. Decker rose up presently, and staggered
toward the table ; a dim idea of trying to clear
it off, and put things in something like order,
struggled with the faintness she felt. She

oo

picked up two plates, sticky with molasses, and
having a piece of pork rind on one, and set
them into each other. She poured a slop of
weak tea from one cracked cup into another
cracked cup, her face growing paler the while.

12 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

Suddenly she clutched at the table, and but for
its help, would have fallen. There was just
strength enough left to help her back to the
rickety chair. Once there, she dropped into
the same utterly hopeless position, and though
there was no one to listen, spoke, her sorrowful
thoughts.

"It's no use ; I must just give up. I'm done
for, and that's the truth ! I've been expecting
it all alonsr, and now it's come. I couldn't clear

O'

up here and get them any dinner, not if he
should kill me, and I don't know but that will
be the next thing. I've slaved and slaved; if
anybody ever tried to do something with noth-
ing, I'm the one ; and now I'm done. I've just
got to lie down, and stay there, till I die. I
wish I could die. If I could do it quick, and be
done with it, I wouldn't care how soon ; but it
would be awful to lie there and see things go
on ; oh, dear ! "

She lifted up her poor bony hands and covered
her face with them and shook as though she
was crying. But she shed no tears. The truth
is, her poor eyes were tired of crying. It was
a good while since any tears had come. After
a few minutes she went on with her story.

THE DECKERS' HOME. 13

"It isn't enough that we are naked, and half-
starved, and things growing worse every day,
but now that Nan must come and make one
more torment. * Fix a place for her to sleep ! '
Where, I wonder, and what with? It is too
much ! Flesh and blood can't bear any more.
If ever a woman did her best I have, and done
it with nothing, and got no thanks for it ; now
I've got to the end of my rope. If I have,
strength enough to crawl back into bed, it is all
there is left of me."

But for all that, she tried to do something
else. Three times she mad.e an effort to clear
away the few dirty things on t'jat dirty table,
and each time felt the deadly faintness creeping
over her, which sent her back frightened to the
chair. The children came in, crying, and she
tried to untie a string for one, and find a pin
for the other ; but her fingers trembled so that
the knot grew harder, and not even a pin was
left for her to give them, and she finally lost all
patience with their cross little ways and gave
each a slap and an order not to come in the
house again that forenoon.

The door was ajar into the most discouraged
looking bedroom that you can think of. It was

14 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIB NETS.

not simply that the bed was unmade; the
truth is, the clothes were so ragged that you
would have thought they could not be touched
without falling to pieces ; and they were badly
stained and soiled, the print of grimy little
hands being all over them. Partly pushed under,
out of sight, was a trundle-bed, that, if any-
thing, looked more repulsive than the large one.
There was an old barrel in the corner, with a
rough board over it, and a chair more rickety
than either of those in the kitchen, and this was
the only furniture there was in that room.

The only bright thing there was in it was the
sunshine, for there was an east window in this
room, and the curtain was stretched as high as
it could be. To the eyes of the poor tired
woman who presently dragged herself into this
room, the light and the heat from the sun seemed
more than she could bear, and she tugged at the
brown paper curtain so fiercely that it tore half
across, but she got it down, and then she fell
forward among the rags of the bed with a

O O

groan.

Poor Mrs. Decker ! I wonder if you have not
imagined all her sorrowful story without another
word from me !

THE DECKERS' HOME. 15

It is such an old story; and it has been told
over so many times, that ail the children in
America know it by heart.

Yes ; she was the wife of a drunkard. Not
that Joe Decker called himself a drunkard ; the
most that he ever admitted was that he some-
times took a drop too much ! I don't think he
had the least idea how many times in a month
he reeled home, unable to talk straight, unable
to help himself to his wretched bed.

I don't suppose he knew that his brain was
never free from the effects of alcohol-; but his
wife knew it only too well. She knew that he
was always cross and sullen now, when he was
not fierce, and she knew that this was not his
natural disposition. No one need explain to her
how alcohol would effect a man's nature ; she
had watched her husband change from month to
month, and she knew that he was growing worse

*

every day.

There was another sorrow in this sad woman's
heart. She had one boy who was nearly ten
years old, when she married Mr. Decker ; and
people had said to her often and often, " What
a handsome boy you have, Mrs. Lloyd ; he ought
to have been a girl." And the first time she

16 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIB NETS.

had felt any particular interest in Joe Decker
was when he made her boy a kite, and showed
him how to fly it, and gave him one bright even-
ing, such as fathers give their boys. This boy's
father had died when he was a baby, and the
Widow Lloyd had struggled on alone ; caring for
him, keeping him neatly dressed, sending him
to school as soon as he was old enough, bringing
him up in such a way that it was often and
often said in the village, " What a nice boy that
Norman Lloyd is! A credit to his mother!
And the mother had sat and sewed, in the even-
ings when Norman was in bed, and thought
over the things that fathers could do for boys
which mothers could not ; and then thought that

f O

there were things which mothers could do for
girls that fathers could not, and Mr. Joseph
Decker, the carpenter, had a little girl, she had
Ijeen told, only a few years younger than her
Norman. And so, when Mr. Decker had made
kites, not only, but little sail boats, and once, a
little table for Norman to put his school books
on, with a drawer in it for his writing-book and
pencil, and when he had in many kind and manly
ways won her heart, this respectable widow who
had for ten years earned her own and her boy's

THE DECKERS' HOME. 17

living, married him, and went to keep his home
for him, and planned as to the kind and moth-
erly things which she would do for his little girl
when she came home.

Alas for plans ! She knew, this foolish wo-
man, that Mr. Decker sometimes took a drink of
beer with his noon meal, and again at night, per-
haps ; but she said to herself, " No wonder, poor
man ; always having to eat his dinner out of a
pail ! No home, and no woman to see that he
had things nice and comfortable. She would
risk but what he would stay at home, when he
had one to stay in, and like a bit of beefsteak
better than the beer, any day."

She had not calculated as to the place which
the beer held in his heart. Neither had he. He
was astonished to find that it was not easy to
give it up, even when Mary wanted him to. He
was astonished at first \o discover how often he
was thirsty with a thirst that nothing but beer
would satisfy. I have not time for all the story.
The beer was not given up, the habit grew
stronger and stronger, and steadily, though at
first slowly, the Deckers went down. From
being one of the best workmen in town, Mr.
Decker dropped down to the level of " Old Joe

18 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

Decker," whom people would not employ if they
could get anybody else. The little girl had
never come home save for a short visit ; at first
the new mother was sorry, then she was glad.

As the days passed, her heart grew heavier
and heavier ; a horrible fear which was almost
a certainty, had now gotten hold of her — that
her handsome, manly Norman was going to copy
the father she had given him ! Poor mother !

I would not, if I could, describe to you all the
miseries of that long day ! How the mother lay
and tossed on that miserable bed, and burned
with fever and groaned with pain. How the
children quarreled and cried, and ran into
mother, and cried again because she could give
them no attention, and made up, and ran out
again to play, and quarreled again. How the
father came home at noon, more under the in-
fluence of liquor than he had been in the morn-
ing; and swore at the table still standing as he
had left it at breakfast time, and swore at his
wife for " lying in bed and sulking, instead of
doing her work like a decent woman," and swore
at his children for crying with hunger; and
finally divided what remained of the bread be-
tween them, and went off himself to a saloon,

THE DECKERS' HOME. 19

where he spent twenty-five cents for his dinner,
and fifty cents for liquor. How Norman came
home, and looked about the deserted kitchen and
empty cupboard, and looked in at his mother,
and said he was sorry she had a headache, and
sighed, and wished that he had a decent home
like other fellows, and wished that a doctor
could be found, who didn't want more money
than he was worth, to pay him for coming to see/
a sick woman, and then went to a bakery and
bought a loaf of bread, and a piece of cheese,
and having munched these, washed them down
with several glasses of beer, went back to his
work. Meantime, the playing and the quarrel-
ing, and the crying, went on outside, and Mrs.
Decker continued to sleep her heavy, feverish
sleep.

Several times she wakened in a bewilderment
of fever and pain, and groaned, and tried to get
up, and fell back and groaned again, and lost her
misery in another unnaturally heavy sleep, and
the day wore away until it was three o'clock in
the afternoon. The stages would be due in a few
minutes — the one that brought passengers over
from the railroad j unction a mile away. The chil-
dren in the yard did not know that one of them

20 LITTLE FISHERS : A1STD THEIR NETS.

was expected to stop at their house ; and the
father when he came home at noon had been
drinking too much liquor to remember it ; and
Norman had not heard of it, and for his mother's
sake would have been too angry to have met it if
he had; so Nan was coming home with nobody
to welcome her.

If you had seen her sitting at that moment, a
trim little maiden in the stage, her face all
flushed over the prospect of seeing father, and
the rest, in a few minutes, you would not have
thought it possible that she could belong to the
Decker family.

She had not seen her home in seven years.
She had been a little thing of six when she went
away with the Marshall family.

It had all come about naturally. Mrs. Mar-
shall was their neighbor, and had known her
mother from childhood; and when she died had
carried the motherless little girl home with her
to stay until Mr. Decker decided what to do ;
and he was slow in deciding, and Mrs. Marshall
had a family of boys, but no little girl, and held
the motherless one tenderly for her mother's
sake ; and when the Marshalls suddenly had an
offer of business which made it necessary for

THE DECKERS' HOME. 21

them to move to the city, they clung to the lit-
tle girl, and proposed to Mr. Decker that she
should go with them and stay until he had a
place for her again. •;

Apparently he had not found a place for her
in all these seven years, for she had never been
sent for to come home.

The new wife had wanted her at first, to be
mother to her, as she fancied Mr. Decker was
going to be father to her boy. But it did not
take her very many months to get her eyes
open to the thought that perhaps the girl would
be better off away from her father ; and of late
years she had looked on the possible home-com-
ing with positive terror. Her own little ones
had nothing to eat, sometimes, save what Nor-
man provided ; and if " he " — and by this Mrs.
Decker meant her husband; he had ceased to
be " Mr. Decker " to her, or " Joseph," or even
Joe — if "he" should take* a notion to turn
against the girl, life would be more terrible to
them in every way ; and on the other hand, if
he should fancy her, and because of her, turn
more against the wife, or Norman, what would
become of them then ?

So the years had passed, and beyond an occa-

22 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIK NETS.

sional threat when Joe Decker was at his worst,
to "send for Nan right straight off," nothing
had been said of her home-coming. The threat
had come oftener of late, for Joe Decker had
discovered that there was just now nothing that
his wife dreaded more than the presence of this
step-daughter ; and his present manly mood was
to do all he could for the discomfort of his wife !
That was one of the elevating thoughts which
liquor had given him !

Three o'clock. The stages came rattling
down the stony road. Few people who lived on
this street had much to do with the stage ; they
could not afford to ride, and they did not belong
to the class who had much company.

So when the heavy carriages kept straight on,
instead of turning the corner below, it brought
a swarm of children from the various dooryards
to see who was coming, and where.

"It's stopped at Decker's, as true as I live! "
said Mrs. Job Smith, peeping out of her clean
pantry window to get a view. "I heard that
Joe had sent for little Nan, but I hoped it wasn't
true. Poor Nan ! if the Marshalls have treated
her with any kind of decency, it'll be a dreadful
change, and I'm sorry enough for her. Yes,

THE DECKERS' HOME. 23

that must be Nan getting out. She's got the
very same bright eyes, but she has grown a sight,
to be sure!" Which need not have seemed
strange to Mrs. Smith, if she had stopped to
remember that seven years had passed since Nan
went away.

The little woman got down with a brisk step
from the stage, and watched her trunk set in the
doorway, and got out her red pocket-book, and
paid the fare, and then looked about her doubt-
fully. Could this be home J

CHAPTER II.

BEGINNING HER LIFE.

QIHE did not remember anything, but the
^— ' yard was very dirty, and the fence was
tumbling down, and there were lights of glass
out of the windows, and a general air of discom-
fort prevailed. It did not look like a home.
Besides, where were father and mother? There
must be some mistake.

The two little Deckers who had played and
quarreled together all day had left their work
to come and stare at the new comer out of as-
tonished eyes. Certainly they did not seem to
have been expecting her.

The new comer turned to the elder of the two
children, and spoke in a gentle winning voice :
"Little girl, do you live here — in this house?"

The child with her forefinger placed medita-
tively on her lip, and her bright eyes staring in-
tensely, decided to nod that she did.
24

BEGINNING HER LIFE. 25

" And can you tell me what your name is ? "

To this question there was no answer for sev-
eral seconds, then she thought better of it and
gravely said : " I could."

This seemed so funny, that poor Nan, though
by this time carrying a very sad heart, could not
help smiling.

" Well, will you?" she asked.

But at this the tangled yellow head was
shaken violently. No, she wouldn't.

"It can't be," said Nan, talking to herself,
since there was no one who would talk with her,
looking with troubled eyes at the two uncombed,
unwashed children, with their dresses half torn
from them, and dirtier than any dresses that
this trim little maiden had ever seen before,
" this really cannot be the place ! and yet father
said this street and number ; and the driver said
this was right." Then she stooped to the little
one. " "Won't you tell me if your name is Satie
Decker?"

But this one was shy, and hid her dirty face
in her dirty hands, and stepped back behind her
sister who at once came to the rescue.

" Yes, 'tis," she said, " and you let her alone."

A shadow fell over Nan's face, but she said

26 LITTLE FISHEES : AND THEIR NETS.

quickly, " Then you must be Susie Decker, and
this place is really home ! "

But you cannot think how strangely it sounded
to her to call such a looking spot as this home.
There was no use in standing on the doorstep.
She could feel that curious eyes were peeping
at her from neighbors' windows. She stepped
quickly inside the half-open door, into the kitchen
where that breakfast-table still stood, with the
flies so thick around the molasses cup, from
which the children had long since drained the
molasses, that it was difficult to tell whether
there was a cup behind it, or whether this really
was a pyramid of flies.

The children followed her in. Susie had a
dark frown on her face, and a determined air,
as one who meant to stand up for her rights and
protect the little sister who still tried to hide
behind her. I think it was well they were there ;
had they not been, I feel almost sure that the
stranger would have sat down in the first chair
and cried.

Poor little woman ! It was such a sorrowful
home-coming to her. So different from what
she had been planning all day.

I wish I could give you a real true picture of

BEGINNING HER LIFE. 27

her as she stood in the middle of that dreadful
room, trying to choke back the tears while she
convinced herself that she was really Nettie
Decker. A trim little figure in a brown and
white gingham dress, a brown straw hat trimmed
with broad bands and ends of satin ribbon, with
brown gloves on her hands, and a ruffle in her
neck. This was Nettie Decker ; neat and or-
derly, from ruffle to buttoned boots. I wonder if
you can think what a strange contrast she was
to everything around her ?

What was to be done? she could not stand
there, gazing about her; and there seemed no
place to sit down, and nowhere to go. Where
could father be? Why had he not stayed at
home to welcome his little girl? or if too busy
for that, surely the mother could have stayed,
and he must have left a message for her.

If the little girls would only be good and try
to tell her what all this strangeness meant ! She
made another effort to get into their confidence.
She bent toward Susie, smiling as brightly as
she could, and said : " Didn't you know, little
girlie, that I was your sister Nettie? I have
come home to play with you and help you have
a nice time."

28 LITTLE FISHEES : AND THEIR NETS.

Even while she said it, she felt ten years older
than she ever had before, and she wondered if
she should ever play anything again ; and if it
could be possible for people to have nice times
who lived in such a house as this. But Susie
was in no sense won, and scowled harder than
ever, as she said in a suspicious tone : " I ain't
got no sister Nettie, only Sate, and Nan."

Hot as the room was, the neat little girl shiv-
ered. There was something dreadful to her in
the sound of that name. She had forgotten that
she ever used to hear it ; she remembered her
father as having called her ' Nannie ' ; that would
do very well, though it was not so pleasant to
her as the ' Nettie ' to which she had been an-
swering for seven years.

But how strange and sad it was that these
little sisters should have been taught to call her
Nan ! could there be a more hateful name than
that, she wondered. Did it mean that her step-
mother hated her, and had taught the children
to do so? She swallowed at. the lump in her
throat. What if she should cry ! what would
those children say or do, and what would hap-
pen next ? she must try to explain.

" iam Nannie," she couldn't make her lips say

BEGINNING HER LITE. 29

the word Nan. " I have come home to live, and
to help you!" She did not feel like saying
" play with you," now. " Will you be a good
girl, and let me love you?"

How Susie scowled at her then ! " No," she
said, firmly, " I won't."

There seemed to be no truthful answer to
make to this, for in the botton of her heart, Nan-
nie did not believe that she could. Still, she
must make the best of it, and she began slowly
to draw off her gloves. Clearly she must do
something towards getting herself settled.

"Won't you tell me where father is? or
mother?" her voice faltered a little over that
word ; " maybe you can show me where to put
my trunk; do you know which is to be my
room ? "

There were pauses made between each of
these questions. The poor little stranger seemed
to be trying first one form and then another, to
see if it was possible to get any help.

Susie decided at last to do something besides
scowl.

" Mother's sick. She lies in bed and groans
all the time. She ain't got us no dinner to-day ;
Sate and me called her, and called her, and, she

30 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

wouldn't say anything to us. There ain't no
room only this and that," nodding her head
toward the bedroom door, " and the room over
the shed where Norm sleeps. Norm is hateful.
He didn't brins: home no bread this noon for

o

Sate and me ; and he said maybe he would f
we're awful hungry."

" Perhaps he couldn't," said poor startled Net-
tie. She hardly knew what she said, only it
seemed natural to try to 'excuse Norm. But
what dreadful story was this ! If there was
really a sick mother, why was not the father
bending over her, and the house hushed and
darkened, and somebody tiptoeing about, plan-
ning comforts for the night? She had seen
something of sickness, and this was the way it
was managed.

Then what was this about there being no room
for her ? Then what in the world was she to do?
Oh, what did it all mean ! She felt as though
she must run right back to the depot, and get on
the cars and go to her own dear home. To be
sure she knew that her father was poor ; what
of that ? so were the Marshalls ; she had heard
Mrs. Marshall say many a time 'that "poor folks
can't have such things," in answer to some of

BEGINNING HER LIFE. 31

the children's coaxings. But poverty such as
this which seemed to surround this home was
utterly strange to Nettie. •

Still, though she felt such a child, she was
also a woman ; in some things at least. She
knew there was no going home for her to-night.
If she had the money to go with, and if there
had been a train to go on, she would still have
been stayed, because it would be wrong to
go. Her father had sent for her, had said that
they wanted her, needed her, and her father cer-
tainly had a right to her; and she had come
away with a full heart, and a firm resolve to be
as good and as helpful and as happy in her old
home as she possibly could. And now that
nothing anywhere was as she had expected it,
was no reason why she should not still do right.
Only, what was there for her to do, and how
should she begin ?

She stood there still in the middle of the
room, the children staring. Presently she crossed
on tiptoe to the bedroom door which was partly
open and peeped in, catching her first glimpse of
the woman whom she must call " mother."

Also she caught a glimpse of that dreadful
bed ; and the horrors of that sight almost took

32 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

away the thought of the woman lying on it.
How could she help being sick if she had to sleep
in such a place as that ? Poor Nettie Decker !
She stood and looked, and looked. Then seeing
that the woman did not stir, but seemed to be
in a heavy sleep, she shut the door softly and
came away.

I don't suppose that Nettie Decker will ever
forget the next three hours of her life, even if
she lives to be an old woman. Not that any-
thing wonderful happened ; only that, for years
and years afterwards, it seemed to her that she
grew suddenly, that afternoon, from a happy-
hearted little girl of thirteen, into a care-taking,
sorrowful woman. While she stood in that bed-
room door, a perfect whirl of thoughts rushed
through her brain, and when she shut the door,
she had come to this conclusion :

"I can't help it; I am Nettie Decker; he is
my father, and I belong to him, and I ought to
be here if he wants me ; and she is my mother;
and if it is dreadful, I can't help it ; there is
everything to do ; and I must do it."

It was then that she shut the door softly and
went back and began her life.

There was that trunk out on the stoop. It

BEGLSTNTffG HEK LIFE. 33

ought to go somewhere. At least she could drag
it into the kitchen so that the troops of children
gathering about the door need not have it to
wonder at any longer. Putting all her strength
to it she drew it in and shut the door. By this
time, Sate, who was getting used to her as she
had gotten used to many a new thing in her lit-
tle life, began to wail that she was hungry, and
wanted some bread and some molasses.

" Poor little girlie ! " Nettie said, " don't cry ;
I'll see if I can find you something to eat.' Did
she really have no dinner, Susie? Oh, darling,
don't cry so ; you will trouble poor mother."

But Susie had gone back to the scowling mood.
" She shall cry, if she wants to ; you can't stop
her; and you needn't try; I'll cry too, just as
loud as I can."

And Susie Decker who had strong lungs and

o o

always did as she said she would, immediately
set up such a howl as put Sate's milder crying
quite in the shade.

Nettie looked over at the bedroom door in
dismay ; but no sound came from there. Yet
this roaring was fearful. How could it be stopped ?
Suddenly she plunged her hand into the depths
of a small travelling bag which still hung on her

34 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

arm, and brought forth a lovely red-cheeked
peach. She held it before the eyes of the naughty
couple and spoke in a determined tone : " This
is for the one who stops crying this instant."

Both children stopped as suddenly as though
they had been wound up, and the machinery had
run down.

Nettie smiled, and went back into the trav-
elling bag. " There must be two of them, it
seems," she said, and brought out another peach.
" Now* you are to sit down on the steps and eat
them, while I see what can be found for our
supper."

Down sat the children. There had been
quiet determination in this new-comer's tone,
and peaches were not to be trifled with. Their
mouths had watered for a taste ever since the
dear woolly things began to appear in the gro-
cery windows, and not one had they had !

Now began work indeed. Nettie opened her
trunk and drew out a work apron which covered
her dress from throat to shoes, and made her
look if anything, prettier than before. Where
was the broom? The children busy with their
peaches, neither knew nor cared ; however, a
vigorous search among the rubbish in the shed

BEGINNING HER LIFE. 35

brought one to light. And then there was such
a cloud of dust as the Decker kitchen had not
seen in a long time. Then came a visit to the
back yard in search of chips ; both children fol-
lowing close at her heels, saying nothing, but
watching every movement with wide-open won-
dering eyes. Back again to the kitchen and the
fire was made up. Then an old kettle was
dragged out from a hole in the corner, which
poor Mrs. Decker called a closet. It was to hold
water, while the fire healed it, but first it must
be washed ; everything must be washed that
was touched. Where was the dishcloth ?

The children being asked, stared and shook
their heads. Nettie searched. She found at
last a rag so black and ill-smelling that without
giving the matter much thought she opened the
stove door and thrust it in. This brought a re-
buke from the fierce Susie.

"You better look out how you burn up my
mother's things. My mother will take your
head right off."

" It wasn't good for anything, dear," Nettie
said soothingly, " it was too dirty." 'And she
stooped down and turned over the contents of
the trunk. Neat little piles of clothing, carefully

86 LITTLE FISHEKS : AND THEIR NETS.

marked with her full name ; a pretty green box
which Susie 'dived for, and pushing off the cover
disclosed little white ruffles, some of lace, and
some of fine lawn, lying cosily together ; but
Nettie was not searching for such as these.
Quite at the bottom of the trunk was a pile of
towels, all neatly hemmed and marked. Two
of these she selected ; looked thoughtfully at
one of them for a moment, and then with a
grave shake of her head, got out her scissors and
snipped.it in two. Now she had a dishcloth, and
a towel for drying. But what a pity to soil the
nice white cloth by washing out that iron kettle !
Nettie had grave suspicions that after such a
proceeding it would not be fit for the dishes.
Still, the kettle must be washed, and to have
used the black rag which she had burned, was
out of the question.

There was no help for it, the other neat dish-
cloth must be sacrificed. So taking the precau-
tion to wipe out the iron kettle with a piece of
paper, and then to heat it quite hot, and apply
soap freely, the cloth escaped without very seri-
ous injury ; and in less time than it takes me to
tell it, the water was getting itself into bubbles
over the stove, and a tin pan was being cleaned,

BEGINNING HER LIFE. 37

ready for the dishes. Then they were gathered,
and placed in the hot and soapy water, and
washed and rinsed and pojished with the white
towel until they shone; and the little girls
looked on, growing more amazed each moment.

It did not take long to wash every dish there
was in that house. I suppose you would hjfve
been very much astonished if you could have
seen how few there were ! Nettie was very
much astonished. She wondered how people
could get supper with so few dishes, to say noth-
ing of breakfasts and dinner. But you see she
did not know how little there was to put on
them.

The next question was, Where to put them ?
One glance at the upper part of the closet where
she had found some of them, convinced Nettie
that her clean dishes could not be happy resting
on those shelves. There was no help for it;
they must be scrubbed, though she had not in-
tended to begin housecleaning the first after-
noon. More water and more soap, and the few
shelves were soon cleared of rubbish, and washed.
Nettie piled all the rubbish on a lower shelf and
left it for a future day. She did not dare to
burn any more property.

38 LITTLE FISHERS I AND THEIK NETS.

" Don't they look pretty ? " she said to the
children, when at last the dishes were neatly ar-
ranged on the shelf. One held them all, nicely.

Susie nodded with a grave face that said she
had not yet decided whether to be pleased or
indignant.

i' What did you doit for?" she asked, after a
moment's silent survey.

" Why, to make them clean and shining.
You and I are going to clear up the house and
make it look ever so nice for mother when she
wakes up."

"Did you come home to help mother?"

"Yes, indeed. And you two little sisters
must show me how to help her ; poor sick
mother ! I am afraid she has too much to do."

" She cries," said Susie gravely, as though
she were stating not a surprising hut simply a
settled fact ; " she cried every day : not out loud
like Sate and me, but softly. Father says she
is always sniveling."

If you had been watching Nettie Decker just
then you would have noticed that the blood
flamed into her cheeks, and her eyes had a flash
of wonder, and terror, and anger in them. What
did it all mean? Where had the children learned

BEGINNING HER LIFE. 39

such words ? "Was it possible that her father
talked in this way to his wife?

" Hush ! " she said unguardedly, " you must
not talk so." But this made the fierce little
Susie stamp her foot.

" I shall talk so ! " she said angrily ; " I shall
talk just what I please, and you sha'n't stop me."
And then the queer little mimic beside her
stamped her foot, and said, " You sha'n't stop
me."

Said Nettie, " There was a little girl on the
cars to-day that I knew. She had a little gray
kitty with three white feet, and a white spot
on one ear, and it had a blue ribbon around its
neck. "What if you had such a kitty. Would
you be real good to it V "

" I will have a black kitty," said Susie, " all
black; as black as that stove." Nettie glancing
at the stove, could not help thinking that it was
more gray than black ; but she kept her thoughts
to herself, and Susie went on. " And it should
have a red ribbon around its neck ; as red as
Janie Martin's dress ; her dress is as red as fire,
and has ruffles on, and ribbons. But what would
it eat?"

She did not mean the dress but the kitten.

40 LITTLE FISHEKS : AND THEIE NETS.

Nettie laughed, but hastened to explain that
the kitten would need a saucer of milk quite
often, and bits of various things. This made
wise Susie gravely shake her head.

"We don't have no milk," she said, "only
once in awhile when Norm buys it ; Sate, she
often cries for milk, but she don't get none. It
don't do no good to cry for milk ; I ain't cried
for any in a long time."

Poor little philosopher ! Poor, pitiful child-
hood without any milk ! Hardly anything could
have told the story of poverty to Nettie's young
ears more surely than this. Why, she was a
big girl thirteen years old, and had lived in a
city where milk was scarce, and yet her glass
had been filled every evening. Nettie did not
know what to make of it. How came her father
to be so poor? She was sure that the house
did not look like this when she went away ; and
her clothes had been neat and good. She had
the little red dress now which she wore away.
She thought of it when Susie was talking, and
wondered if with a little fixing it could not be
made to fit the black-eyed child who seemed to
admire red so much. Finding the kitty a trou-
blesome subject, at least so far as the finding of

BEGINNING HEB LIFE. 41

milk for it was concerned, she turned the con-
versation to the little girls who had been on the
cars ; the one with the kitty, and her little sis-
ter, whom she called " Pet." " She was about as
old as you, Susie, and Pet was about Satie's age.
And she was very kind to Pet ; she always spoke
to her so gently, and took such care of her ev-
erybody seemed to love her for her kindness."

" I take care of Sate," said Susie. " I never
let anybody hurt her. I would scratch their
eyes out if they did ; and they know it."

" You slap me sometimes," little Sate said,
her voice slightly reproachful.

" Yes," said Susie loftily, " but that is when
you are bad and need it ; I don't let anybody
else slap you."

" The oldest little girl had curly hair," said
Xettie, " but it wasn't so long as yours, and did
not curl so nicely as I think yours would. And
Pet's hair was a pretty brown, like Sate's, and
looked very pretty. It was combed so neatly.
One wore a blue dress, and one a white dress ;
but I think they would have looked prettier if
they had been dressed both alike."

"I don't like white dresses," said Susie ; " I
like fiery red ones."

42 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

So Nettie resolved that the red dress should
be made to fit her.

Meantime, the scrubbing had gone on rapidly ;
the table was as clean as soap and water could
make it. Now if those children would only let
her wash their faces and put their hair in order,
how different they would look. Should she
venture to suggest it ?

It all depended on how the idea happened to
strike Susie.

CHAPTER m.

THE TRUTH IS TOLD.

TN the bottom of that wonderful little trunk
-*- lay side by side two little blue and white
plaid dresses, made gabrielle fashion, with ruf-
fles around the bottom and around the neck.
Never were dresses made with more patient
care. All the stitches were small and very neat.
And they represented hours and hours of
steady work. Every stitch in them had been
taken by Nettie Decker. Long before she had
thought of such a thing as coming home, they
had been commenced. Birthday presents they
were to be to the little sisters whom she had
never seen. She had earned the money to buy
them. She had borrowed two little neighbors
of the same age, to fit them to, and with much
advice and now and then a little skilful handling
from Mrs. Marshall, they were finally finished to
Nettie's great satisfaction.
43

44 LITTLE FISHEKS: AND THEIR NETS.

It was the day the last stitch was set in them
that she learned she- was to come herself and
bring them.

She thought of them this afternoon. If the
little girls would only let her comb their hair
and wash their faces and hands, she would put
on the new dresses. She had not intended to
present them in that way, but dresses as soiled
and faded and worn as those the little sisters
had on, Nettie Decker had never worn.

She opened the trunk, with both children be-
side her, watching, and drew out the dresses.

"Aren't these almost as pretty as red ones ?"
she asked, as she unfolded them, and displayed
the dainty ruffles.

"No," said Susie, " not near so pretty as red
ones. But then they are pretty. They aren't
dresses at all ; they are aprons. Are they for
you to wear?"

" No," said Nettie, " they are for two little
girls to wear, who have their hair combed beau-
tifully, and their hands and faces very clean."

"Do you mean us?"

"I do if the description fits. lean think just
how nice you would look if your faces were clean
and your hair was combed."

THE TRUTH IS TOLD. 45

" We will put on the aprons," said Susie firmly,
" but we won't have our hair combed, nor our
faces washed, and you need not try it."

But Miss Susie found that this new sister had
as strong a will as she. The trunk lid went
down with a click, and Nettie rose up.

" Very well," she said, " then we will not waste
time over them. I brought them for you, and
meant to put them on you this afternoon to sur-
prise mamma, but if you don't want them, they
can lie in the trunk."

" I told you we did want them," said Susie,
looking horribly cross. " I said we would put
them on."

" Yes, but you said some more which spoiled
it. I say that they cannot go on until your
faces and hands are so clean that they shine, and
your hair is combed beautifully."

" You can't make us have our hair combed."

" I shall not try," said Nettie, as though it
was a matter of very small importance to her.
" I was willing to dress you all up prettily, but
if you don't choose to look like the little girls I
saw on the cars, why you can go dirty, of course.
But you can't have the clean new dresses."

"Till when?"

46 LITTLE FISHERS I AND THEIR NETS.

" Not ever. Unless you are clean and neat."

"It hurts to have hair combed."

" I know it. Yours would hurt a good deal,
because you don't have it combed every day ; if
you kept it smooth and nice it would hardly
hurt at all. But I didn't suppose you were a
cowardly little girl who was afraid of a few
pulls. If the dresses are not worth those, we
had better let them lie in the trunk."

Nettie was already beginning to understand
her queer fierce little sister. She had no idea of
being thought a coward.

"Well," she said, after a thoughtful pause,
" comb my hair if you like ; I don't care. Sate,
you are going to have your hair combed, and
you needn't cry; because it won't do any good."

It was certainly a trial to all parties ; and poor
little Sate in spite of this warning, did shed sev-
eral tears ; but Susie, though she frowned, and
choked, and once jerked the comb away and
threw it across the floor, did not let a single
tear appear on her cheeks. And at last the ter-
rible tangles slipped out, and left silky folds of
beautiful hair that was willing to do whatever
Nettie's skilful fingers told.it. When the faces
and hands were clean, and the lovely blue dresses

THE TRUTH IS TOLD. 47

had been arranged, Nettie stood back to look at
them in genuine delight. What pretty little girls
they were! She sighed in two minutes after
she thought this. What did it mean that they
looked so neglected and dirty?

" These must go in the wash," she said, as she
gathered up the rags which had been kicked off.

"Will we put these on in the morning?"
asked Susie, in quite a mild tone. She was
looking down at herself and was very much
pleased with her changed appearance.

" Oh, no," Nettie said, " they are too light to
play in. They are dress-up clothes. You must
have dark dresses on in the morning."

"We ain't got no dresses only them," and
Susie pointed contemptuously at the rags in
Nettie's hand. This made poor Nettie sigh
again. What did it all mean ?

However, there was no time for sighing.
There was still a great deal to be done.

"Now we must get tea," she said, bustling
about. " Where does mother keep the bread,
and other things?"

"She don't keep them nowhere. We don't
have no things. I go to the bakery sometimes
for bread, and for potatoes, and sometimes for

48 LITTLE FISHEKS : AXD THEIK NETS.

milk. I would go now ; I just want to show
that hateful little girl in there my new dress,
and my curls, but it isn't a bit of use to go. He
won't let us have another single thing without
the money. He said so yesterday, and he looked
BO cross he scared Sate ; but I made faces at
him."

This called forth several questions as to where
the bakery was, and Nettie, finding that it was
but a few steps away, and that the little girls
really bought most of the things which came
from there, counted out the required number of
pennies from her poor little purse for a loaf of
bread and a pint of milk. In the cupboard was
what had once been butter, set on the upper
shelf in a teacup. It was almost oil, now.

"If I had a lump of ice for this," Nettie mur-
mured, " it might do. Butter costs so much."

"They keep ice at the bakery," said that wise
young woman, Susie, "but we never buy it."

This brought two more pennies from the
pocketbook ; for to Nettie it seemed quite im-
possible that butter in such a condition could be
eaten. So the ice was ordered, and two very
neat, and very vain little bits of girls started on
their mission.

TIIE TRUTH IS TOLD. 49

Tablecloths? Where would the new house-
keeper find them? Where indeed! Hunt through
the room as she would, no/ trace of one was to
be found. She did not know that the Deckers
had not used such an article in months. She
thought of the cupboard drawer at home, and of
the neat pile which was always waiting there,
and at about this hour it had been her duty to
set the table and make everything ready for tea.
It would not do to think about it. There were
sharper contrasts than these. Her proposed
present to her mother had been a tablecloth, not
very large nor very fine, but beautifully smooth
and clean, and hemmed by her own patient fin-
gers. She must get it out to-night, as no other
appeared ; and of course she conld not set the
table without one. So it was spread on the clean
table, and the few dishes arranged as well as she
could. There was a drawing of tea set up in
another teacup, and there was a sticky little tin
teapot. Nettie, as she washed it, told it that
to-morrow she would scour it until it shone;
then she made tea. Meantime the little errand
girls had returned with their purchases, the
butter was resting on a generous lump of ice,
the bread which was found to be stale, was

50 LITTLE FISHEES : AND THEIB NETS.

toasted, a plate of cookies from the wonderful
trunk was added, and at last there was ready
such a supper as had not been eaten in that
house for weeks. To be sure it looked to Nettie
as though there was very little to eat ; but then
she had not been used to living at the Deckers.
She began to be very nervous about the people
who were going to sit down at this neat table.
Why did not some of them come ?

The wise housekeeper knew that neither tea
nor toast improved greatly by standing, but she
drew the teapot to the very edge of the stove,
covered the toast, and set it in the oven. Then
she went softly to the bedroom door and opened
it. This time a pair of heavy eyes turned, as
the door creaked, and were fixed on her with a
kind of bewildered stare. She went softly in.

" How do you feel now ? " she asked gently.
" I have made a cup of tea and a bit of toast
for you. Shall I bring them now ? The chil-
dren said you did not eat any dinner."

" Who are you ? " asked the astonished woman,
still regarding her with that bewildered stare.

Nettie swallowed at the lump in her throat.
It would be dreadful if she should burst out cry-
ing and run away, as she felt exactly like doing.

THE TEUTH 18 TOLD. 51

" I am Nettie Decker," she said, and her lips
quivered a little. " Father sent for me, you
know. Didn't you think I would be here to-day,
ma'am?"

"You can't be Nan!"

I cannot begin to describe to you the aston-
ishment there was in Mrs. Decker's voice.

" Yes'm, I am. At least that is what father
used to call me once in a while, just for fun.
My name is Nanette ; but Auntie Marshall where
I live, or where I used to live" — she corrected
herself, " always called me Nettie. May I bring
you the tea, ma'am ? I think it will make you
feel better."

But the two children had stayed in the back-
ground as long as they intended. They pushed
forward, Susie eager-voiced :

" Look at us ! Tee my curls, and see my new
apron, only she says it is a dress, but it ain't ; it
is made just like Jennie Brown's apron, ain't it?
But we ain't got no dresses on. She's got a
white cloth on the table, and cookies, and a
lump of ice, and everything; and we had two
peaches. Old Jock gave us the bread. She
sent the money, and I told him to take his old
money and give me some bread right straight."

52 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEFR NETS.

How fast Susie could talk !

There was scarcely room for the slow sweet
Satie to get in her gentle, " and me too." Mean-
ing look at my dress and hair. The bewildered
mother raised herself on her elbow and stared —
from Nan to the little girls, and then back to
Nan. She was sufficiently astonished to satisfy
even Susie.

" Well, I never ! " she said at last. " I didn't
know, I mean I didn't think " • — then she stopped
and pressed her hand to her head, and pushed
back the straggling hair behind her ears. " I
took dizzy this morning," she said at last, ad-
dressing Nettie as though she were a grown-up

O O ~ 1

neighbor who had stepped in to see her, " and
I staggered to the bed, and didn't know nothing
for a long while. I had a dreadful pain in my
head, and then I must have dropped to sleep.
Here I've been all day, if the day is gone. It
must be after three o'clock if you've got here.
I meant to try to do something towards making
things a little more decent; though the land
knows what it would have been ; I don't.
There's nothing to do with. I didn't know till
this morning that he had the least notion of
sending for you — though he's threatened it

THE TRUTH IS TOLD. 53

times enough. I've been ailing all the spring,
and this morning I just give out. I don't know
what is the matter with me. The bed goes
round now, and things get into a kind of a
blur."

"Let me bring you a cup of tea and something
to eat," said Nettie; "I think you are faint."
Then she vanished, the children following.
She was back in a few minutes, under her arm
a white towel from her trunk; this she spread
on the barrel head which you will remember did
duty as a table. She spread it with one hand,
little Sate carefully smoothing out the other
end. In her left hand she carried a cup of tea
smoking hot, and poor Mrs. Decker noticed that
the cup shone. Susie followed behind, an air of
grave importance on her face, and in her hands
a plate, covered by a smaller one, which being
taken off disclosed a delicately browned slice of
bread with a bit of butter spread carefully
over it.

"Well, I never!" said Mrs. Decker again,
but she drank the tea with feverish haste, stop-
ping long enough to feel of the cup with a curi-
ous look on her face. It was so smooth. There
was a sound of heavy feet outside, and the

54 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

children appeared at the door and announced
that father and Norm had come. Nettie took
the emptied cup, promising to fill it again, urged
the eating of the toast while it was hot, and
went with trembling heart to meet the father
whom she had not seen in so many years that
she remembered very little about him.

A great rough-faced, unshaven man, with un-
combed hair, ragged and dirty shirt sleeves,
ragged and dirty pants, a red face and eyes that
seemed but half open, and watery. Nothing
less like what Nettie had imagined a father,
could well be described. However, if she had
but known it, this was a great improvement on
the man who often came home to supper. He
was nearly sober, and greeted her with a rough
sort of kindness, giving her a kiss, which made
her shrink and tremble. It was perfumed with
odors which she did not like.

" Well, Nan, my girl, you have grown into a
fine young lady, have you ? Tall for your years,
too. And smart, I'll bo bound ; you wouldn't
be your mother's girl if you wasn't. Is it you
that has fixed up things so ? It is a good thing
you have come to take care of us. We haven't
had anything decent here in so long, we've most

THE TRUTH IS TOLD. 55

forgot how to treat it. Come on, Norm. This
table looks something like living again."

And " Norm " shambled in. Rough, and un-
combed, and unwashed, except a dab at his
hands which left long streaks of brown at the
wrists. A hard-looking boy, harder than Nettie
had ever spoken to before. She could not help
thinking of Jim Daker who lived in a saloon not
far from her old home, and whom she had
always passed with a hurried step, and with
eyes on the ground, and of whom she thought
as of one who lived in a different world from
hers, and wondered how it felt to be down there
in the slum. Now here was a boy whom it was
her duty to think of as a brother ; and he re-
minded her of Jim Daker !

Still there was something about Norm that
she could not help half liking. He had great
brown, wistful-looking eyes, and an honest face.
She had not much chance, it is true, to observe
the eyes ; for he did not look at her, nor speak,
until his father said :

" Why don't you shake hands with Nan ?
You ought to be glad to see her. You ain't
used to such a looking supper as this."

The boy laughed, in an embarrassed way, and

56 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

said he was sure he did not know whether he
was glad to see her or not: depended on what
she had come for. He gave her just a gleam
then from the brown eyes, and she smiled and
held out her hand. He took it awkwardly
enough, and dropped it as suddenly as though it
had been hot ; then sat down in haste at the
table, where his step-father was already making
havoc with the toast. It was not a very sub-
stantial meal for people who had dined on bread
and cheese, and were hungering at that moment
for beer; but the man had spoken the truth, it
was better than they generally found. There
•was one part of the story, however, that he failed
to tell : which was, that he did not furnish money
to get anything better. As for Susie and Sate,
they had become suddenly silent. They sat
close together and devoured their toast, like
hungry children indeed, but also like scared
children. They gave occasional frightened
glances at their father which puzzled and pained
Nettie. No suspicion of the truth had yet come
to her. Oh, yes, she had smelled the liquor
when her father kissed her; but she thought it
was something which had to do with the ma-
chinery around which he worked.

THE TRUTH IS TOLD. ,57

" Where is the old woman ? " he asked sud-
denly, setting down his empty cup which Nettie
had filled for the third time. She looked up at
him with a startled air. To whom was he speak-
ing and what old woman could he mean ? Her
look seemed to make him cross. " What are
you staring at ? " he said sharply. " Can't you
answer a question? Where's your mother?"

Nettie hurried to answer; she was sick, had
been real sick all day, but was better now, and
was trying to get up.

" She is everlastingly sick," the father said
with a sneer; "you will get used to that story
if you live here long. I hope you ain't one of
the sickly kind, because we have heard enough
of that."

This sentence and the tone in which it was
spoken, brought the blood in great waves to
Nettie's face. It was the first time she had
ever heard a man speak of his wife in such a
way. Norm looked up from his cookie, and
flashed angry eyes on his step-father for a mo-
ment, and said "he didn't know as that was
any wonder. She had enough to make any
woman sick."

"You shut up," said the father in increasing

58 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

irritability ; and the children slipped out of their
seats and moved toward the door, keeping care-
ful eyes on the father until they were fairly out-
side. Nettie felt her limbs trembling so that
her knees knocked together under the table.
But at last every crumb of toast was eaten, and
every drop of tea swallowed, and Mr. Decker
pushed himself back from the table, and spoke
in a somewhat gentler tone : " Well, my girl,
make yourself as comfortable as you can. I'm
glad to see you. We need your help, you'll
find, in more ways than one. You've been work-
ing for other folks long enough. It is a poor
place you've come to, and that's a fact. I ain't
what I used to be ; I've been unfortunate. No
fellow ever had worse luck. Everything has
gone wi'ong with me ever since your mother
died. A sick wife, and young ones to look
after, and nobody to do a thing. It is a hard
life, but you might as well rough it with the
rest of us. You'll get along somehow, I s'pose.
The rest of us always have. I've got to go out
for awhile. You tell the old woman to fix up
some place for you to sleep, and we'll do the
best we can."

And he lounged away ; Norm having left the

THE TRUTH IS TOLD. 59

table and the room some minutes before. And
this was the father to whom Nettie Decker had
come home !

She swallowed at the lump which seemed
growing larger every minute in her throat. She
had choked back a great many tears that after-
noon. There was no time to cry. Some place
must be fixed for her to sleep.

In the home that she had left, there was a lit-
tle room with matting on the floor, and a little
white bed in the corner, and a pretty toilet set
that the carpenter's son had made her at odd
times, and a wash bowl and pitcher that had been
her present on her eleventh birthday, and a green
rocking-chair that aunt Kate had sent her : not
her own aunt Kate, but Mrs. Marshall's sister
who had adopted her as a niece, and these things
and many another little knickknack were all her
own. The room was empty to-night ; but then
Nettie must not cry !

She began to gather the dishes and get them
ready for washing. Just as she plunged her
hands into the dishwater, the bedroom door
opened, and her mother came out, stepping
feebly, like one just recovering from severe ill-
ness.

60 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIK NETS.

" I'm dreadful weak," she said in answer to
Nettie's inquiries, " but I guess I'm better than
I have been in a good while. I've had a rest to-
day ; the first one I have had in three years. I
don't know what made me give out so, all of a
sudden. I tried to keep on my feet, but I couldn't
do it no more than I could fly. You oughtn't
to have to wash them dishes, child, with your
pretty hands and your pretty dress. Oh, dear !
I don't know what is to become of any of us."

" This is my work apron," said Nettie, trying
to speak cheerily, " and I am used to this work :
I always helped with the tea dishes at home."
Then she plunged into the midst of the subject
which was troubling her. " Father said I was to
ask you where I was to sleep."

"He better ask himself!" said the wilted
woman, rousing to sudden energy and indisrna-

O O»/ ~

tion. "How does he think I know? There isn't
the first rag to make a bed of, nor a spot to put
it, if there was. I say it was a sin and a shame
for him to send for you, and that's the truth !
If he had one decent child who had a place to
stay, where she would be took care of, he ought
to have let you alone. You have come to an aw-
ful home, child. You have got to know the truth,

THE TRUTH IS TOLD. 61

and you might as well know it first as last. It
is enough sight worse than you have seen to-night,
though I dare say you think this is bad enough.
You don't look nor act like what I was afraid of,
and you must have had good friends who took
care of you ; and he ought to have let you alone.
This is no place for a decent girl. It is bad
enough for an old woman Avho has given up, and
never expects to have anything decent any more.
He won't provide any place for you, nor any
clothes, and what we are to do with one more
mouth to feed is more than I can see. I wouldn't
grudge it to you, child, if we had it ; but we are
starved, half the time, and that's the living
truth."

"I won't eat much," said poor Nettie, trem-
bling and quivering, " and I will try very hard
to help ; but if you please, what makes things so ?
Can't father get work ? "

" Work ! of course he can ; as much as he can
do. He is as good a machinist to-day as there is
in the shops ; when they have a particular job
they want him to do it. He works hard enough
by spells ; why, child, it's the drink. You didn't
know it, did you ? Well, you may as well know
it first as last. He was nearer sober to-night

62 LITTLE FISHEKS : AND THEIK NETS.

than he has been in a week ; but he wasn't so
very sober or he wouldn't have been cross. He
used to be good and kind as the best of them,
and we had things decent. I never thought it
would come to this, but it has, and it grows
worse every day. Yes, you may well turn pale,
and cry out. Turning pale won't do any good.
And you may cry tears of blood, and them that
sells the rum to poor foolish men will go right on
selling it as long as they have money to pay,
and kick them out when they haven't. That is
the way it is done, and it keeps going on here
year after year, homes ruined, and children made
beggars, and them that have the making of the
laws, go right on and let it be done. I've watched
it. And I've tried, too. You needn't think I gave
up and sat down to it without trying as hard as
ever woman could to struggle against the curse ;
but I've give up now. Nothing is of any use.
And the worst of it is my Norm is going the
same road."

CHAPTER IV.

NEW FRIENDS.

A ND then the poor woman who thought
•*-*- she had no more tears to shed, buried
her face in her hands and shed some of the bit-
terest ones she ever did in her life.

Poor Nettie! she tried to turn comforter;
tried to think of one cheering word to say ; but
what was there to cheer the wife of a drunk-
ard ? Or the daughter of a drunkard ? Could
it be possible that she, Nettie Decker, was that!
Oh, dear ! how often she had stood in the door,
and with a kind of terrified fascination watched
Jane Daker stealing home in the darkness, afraid
to go in at the front door, lest her drunken
father should see her and vent his wrath on her.
Could she ever creep around in the dark and
hide away from her own father? Wouldn't it
be possible for her to go back home ? She had
not money enough to get there, but couldn't she
63

64 LITTLE FISHERS : AJfD THEIK NETS.

work somehow, and earn money? She could
write a letter to the folks at home and tell them
the dreadful story, and they would surely find
a way of sending for her. But then, money was
not plenty in that home, and she began to un-
derstand that they had done a great deal for her,
and that it had cost a good deal to pay her fare
to this place. She had wondered, at the time,
that her father did not send the money for her
to come home, but she said to herself : " I sup-
pose he did not know how much it would cost,
and he will give it to me to send in my first let-
ter. Perhaps he will give me a little bit more
than it costs, too, for a little present for Jamie."

Oh, poor little girl ! building hopes on a father
like hers. She had not been at home half a day,
but she knew now that no money would ever go
back to the Marshalls in return for all they had
done for her. Worse than that, she might not
be able to get back to them herself. Would her
father be likely to let her go? He had sent for
her, and had told her during this first hour of
their meeting, that she had worked for other
people long enough. This made her heart swell
with indignation.

Done enough for others, indeed ! What had

XEW FRIENDS. 65

they not done for her? She never realized it
half so plainly as she did to-night. " I will go
back ! " she muttered, setting the little bowl she
was drying on the table with a determined
thump. " I can't stay in such a place as this. I
will write to Auntie Marshall this very night if
I can get a chance, and she will contrive some
way."

Certainly, Nettie in that mood could have no
comfort for a weeping mother, and attempted
none, after the first murmured word of pity.
But meantime she knew very well that she could
not go back home that night, and the present
terror was, where was she to sleep ?

Her mother went back into the bedroom after
a few minutes of bitter weeping, and Nettie fin-
ished the work, then stood drearily in the door-
way, wondering what she could do next, when a
good, homely, motherly face looked out of the
side window of the small house next their own,
and a cheery voice spoke :

"Are you Joe Decker's little Nannie?"

"Yes'm," said Nettie, sadly, wondering drear-
ily, even then, if it could be possible that this
was so.

"Well," said the voice, " I calculated that you

66 LITTLE FISHEES : AXD THEIR NETS.

must be; though I never should have known
you in the world, if I hadn't heard you was
coming, you was such a mite of a thing when
you went away. What a tall nice girl you've
got to be. Your ma is sick, the children said.
I've been away ironing all day, or I would have
been in to see if I could help the poor thing any.
I don't know her very much, but she is sickly,
and has hard times now and then, and I'm sorry
for her. Now what I was wondering is, where
are they going to put you to sleep ? The upper
part of that house ain't finished off, is it? It is
one big attic, ain't it, where Norm sleeps? I
thought so. I suppose there could be quite a
nice room made up there with a little work and
a few dollars laid out, but your pa ain't done it,
I'll be bound. And I knew there wasn't but
one bedroom down-stairs, and I couldn't think
how they would manage it."

" It isn't managed at all, ma'am," said Nettie,
seeing that she seemed to wait for an answer,
and there was nothing to say but the simple
truth. "There is no place for me to sleep."

" You don't say ! Now that's a shame. Well,
now, what I was thinking was, that maybe you
would like to sleep in the woodhouse chamber;

NEW FRIENDS. 67

it is a nice little room as ever was, and it opens
right out of my Sarah Ann's room ; so you
wouldn't be lonesome. I haven't any manner of
use for it, now my boy's gone away, and I just
as soon you would sleep there as not until your
folks get things fixed. You're a dreadful clean-
looking little girl, and I like that. I'm a master
hand to have clean things around me ; Job says
he believes I catch the flies and dust their wings
before I let them go into my front room. Job
is my husband, and that is his little joke at me,
you know." And she laughed such a jolly little
roly-poly sort of laugh that poor Nettie could
not keep a smile from her troubled face. A
refuge in the woodhouse chamber of this neat,
good-natured-looking woman seemed like a bit
of heaven to the homesick child.

"I am very much obliged to you, ma'am,"
she said respectfully ; " I will tell my mother how
kind you are, and I think she will be glad to
accept the kindness for a few days. I — " and
then Nettie suddenly stopped. It might not be
well to say to this new friend that she would not
need to trouble the woodhouse chamber long,
for she meant to start for home as soon as a let-
ter could travel there, and another travel back.

68 LITTLE FISHEES : AND THEIR NETS.

Something might come in the way of this re-
solve, though it made her feel hot all over to
think of such a possibility.

"Bless my heart!" said Mrs. Job Smith as
Nettie vanished to consult her mother. " If that
ain't as polite and pretty-spoken a child as ever
I see in my life. She makes me think of our
Jerry. To think of that child being Joe Decker's
girl and coming back to such a home as he
keeps ! It is too bad ! I am sure I hope they
will let her sleep in the woodhouse chamber.
It is the only spot where she will get any
peace."

Mrs. Decker was only too glad to avail her-
self of her neighbor's kind offer. "It is good of
her," she said gratefully to Nettie. " I wish to
the land you could have such a comfortable room
all the time ; they are real clean-looking folks.
You wouldn't suppose from the looks of this
house that I cared for clean things, but I do, and
I used to have them about me, too. I was as
neat once as the best of them; but it takes
clothes and soap and strength to be clean, and
I have had none of 'em in so lon<r that I have

O

most forgot how to do anything decent."

" Soap?" said Nettie, wonderingly. She was

NEW FKIEND8. 69

beating up the poor rags which composed the
bed in her mother's room, trying to get a little
freshness into them.

" Yes, soap ; I don't suppose you can imagine
how it would seem not to have all the soap you
wanted ; I couldn't, either, once, but I tell you
I save the pennies nowdays for bread, so that
I need not see my children starve before my
eyes. I would rather do without soap than
bread ; especially when our clothes are so worn
out that there is nothing much to change with.
Oh, I tell you when you get into a house where
the men folks spend all they can get on beer or
whiskey, there are not many pennies left. Mrs.
Smith has been real kind ; she sent the children
in a bowl of soup one day when their father had
gone off and not left a thing in the house, nor a
cent to get anything with.

" And she has done two or three things like
that lately ; I'm grateful to her, but I'm ashamed
to say so. I never expected to sink so low that
I should be glad of the scraps which a poor
neighbor like her could send in. Oh, no ; they
are not very poor. Why, they are rich as kings,
come to compare them with us ; but they are
not grand folks at all; he is a teamster, and

70 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIK NETS.

works hard every day; so does she; but he
doesn't drink a drop, and they have a good
many comfortable things. Their boy is away
at school, and their girl, Sarah Ann, is learning
a dressmaker's trade. You will have a comfort-
able bed in there, and I'm glad of it."

And now it was eight o'clock. Susie and
Sate were asleep in their trundle bed, the tired
Nettie having coaxed them to let her give them
a splendid bath first, making the idea pleasant
to them by producing from her trunk a cunning
little cake of perfumed soap. They looked
" as pretty as pictures," the sad-eyed mother
said, as she bent over them when they were
asleep, with their moist hair in loose waves, and
their clean faces flushed with health. " They are
real pretty little girls," she added earnestly, as
she turned away. "He might be proud of
them. And he used to be, too. When Sate
was a baby, he said she had eyes like you, and
he used to kiss her and tell her she was pretty,
until I was afraid he would spoil her; but there
isn't the least danger of that now. He never
notices either of them except to slap them or
growl at them."

" How came father to begin to drink ? " Net-

NEW FBLENDS. 71

tie asked the question timidly, hesitating over
the last word ; it seemed such a dreadful word
to add to a father's name.

" Don't ask me, child ; I don't know. They
say he always drank a little; a glass of beer
now and then. I knew he did when I married
him, but I thought it was no more than all hard-
working men did. I never thought much about
it. I know it never entered my head that he
could be a drunkard. I'd have been too afraid
for Norm if I had dreamed of such a thing as
that.

"He kept increasing the drinks, little by little —
it grows on them, .it seems, the habit does; they
say that is the way with all the drinks; I didn't
know it. I never was taught about these things.
If I had been, I think sometimes my life would
have been very different. I know I wouldn't
have walked right into the fire with my one boy,
anyhow. I'm talking to you, child, as though
you were a woman grown, and you seem most
like a woman to me, you are so handy, and
quiet, and nice-looking. I was sorry you were
coming, because I thought you would just be
an added plague ; and now I am sorry for your
own sake."

72 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

Nettie hesitated greatly over the next ques-
tion. It was a very hard one to ask this sick
and discouraged mother, but she must know the
whole of the misery by which she was sur-
rounded. "Does Norman drink too?"

" Norm," said Mrs. Decker, dropping into the
one chair, and putting her hand to her heart as
though there was something stabbing her there,
" Norm has been led away by your father. He
was a bright little fellow, and your father took
to him amazingly. I used to tell him his own
little girls would have reason to be jealous of
his step-son. He took Norm with him every-
where, from the first. And taught him to do
odd things, for a little fellow, and was proud of
his singing, and his speaking, and all that. And
when Susie there, was a baby, and I was kept close
at home with her, and Norm would tear around
in the evening and wake her up, I slipped into
the way of letting him go out with your father
to spend the evenings; I didn't know they
spent them in bar-rooms, or groceries where they
sold beer. I never dreamed of such a thing.
Your father talked about meeting the men, and
I thought they met at some of the houses where
there wasn't a baby to cry, and talked their

WEW FRIENDS. 73

work over, or the news, you know. And there
he was teaching Norm to drink. He was a
pretty little fellow, and he would sing comic
songs, and then they would treat him to the su-
gar in their glasses ! When I found it out, he
had got to liking the stuff, and I don't suppose
a day goes by without his taking more or less of
it now. He never gets as bad as your father ;
but he will. He is never cross and ugly to me,
nor to the children, but he will be. It grows
on him. It grows on them all. And to think
that I led him into the trap ! If I had stayed
in the country where I was brought up, or if I
had left him with his grandfather, as he wanted
me to, he might have been saved. The grand-
father is gone now, and so is the farm. Your
father got hold of my share of that, and lost it
somehow. He didn't mean to, and that soured
him, and he drank the harder, and we are going
down to the very bottom of everything as fast
as we can."

It seemed to poor Nettie that they must have
reached the bottom now. She could not imagine
any lower depths than these.

She made up the poor bed as well as she could,
and then went back to the kitchen to see what

74 LITTO: FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

could be done about breakfast. Her new mother
was evidently too weak and sick to be troubled
with the thought of it, and while she stayed,
Nettie resolved that she would help the poor
woman all she could. She went out into the
yard to examine, and discovered to her satisfac-
tion that there must be a cooper's shop just
around the corner, for the chips lay thick. She
gathered some for the morning fire, determined
in her mind that she would buy a few potatoes at
the grocery in the morning ! In the cupboard she
had found a cup of sour milk ; this she had care-
fully treasured with an eye to breakfast, and she
now looked into her purse to see if she could
spare pennies for a quart of flour. If she could,
then some excellent cakes would be the result.

And now everything that she knew how to do
towards the next day's needs was attended to,
and she went out in the moonlight, and sat down
on the lowest step of the back stoop, and did
what she had been longing to do all the after-
noon — cried as though her poor young heart
was breaking.

Astride a saw-horse in the yard which be-
longed to Job Smith, and which was separated
from the stoop where she sat only by a low

NEW FBIENDS. 75

fence, was a curly-headed boy, who had come
there apparently to whittle and whistle and
watch her. He was not there when she sat
down and buried her head in her apron. She did
not notice his whistling, though he made it loud
and shrill on purpose to attract her attention.
He knew quite a little about her by this time,
lie had come upon the boys of the Grammar
School in the midst of their afternoon recess and
heard Harry Stuart interrupt little Ted Barrows
who was the youngest one in the class and wrote
the best compositions. They were gathered
under a tree listening to Ted, while he read them
" The Story of An Hour," which was especially
interesting because it had some of their own ex-
periences skilfully woven in.

" Hold on," Harry was saying, just as the
whistling boy appeared within hearing. " You
didn't make that thing up ; you got it from the
Deckers ; that is what is just going to happen
there. Old Joe's Nan is coming home this very
day, and she is about as old as the girl you've
got in your story, and is freckled, I dare say ;
most girls are."

" I didn't even know old Joe Decker had a
girl to come home ! " said little Ted, looking

76 LITTLE FISHEES: AND THEIR NETS.

injured. "I made every word of it out of my
own mind."

But the boys did not hear him ; their interest *
had been called in another direction. " Is that
so ? Is Nan Decker coming home ? My ! What
a house to come to. Mother said only yesterday
that she hoped the folks who had her would keep
her forever. What is she coming for? Who
told you?"

" Why, she is coming because Joe thinks that
will be another way to plague the old lady. At
least that is what my mother thinks. Mrs.
Decker told her once that when Joe had been
drinking more than usual he always threatened
to send for Nan; but she didn't think he would.
And now it seems he has. I heard it from the
old fellow himself. He was telling Norm about
it, while I stood waiting for father's saw. He
said she was coming in the stage this afternoon ;
that she had worked for other folks long enough
and it was time he had some good of her himself.
I pity her, I tell you."

Then the whistler had come out from behind
the trees, and said good-afternoon, and asked a
few questions. The boys had answered him
civilly enough, but in a way which showed that

NEW FRIENDS. 77

they did not count him as one of them. The
fact was, he was a good deal of a stranger. He
had been in town only a few weeks, and he did
not go to school, and he boarded with or lived
with, the Smiths, who lived next door to the
Deckers, and were nice enough people, but did
not have much to do with the fathers and
mothers of these boys, and — well, the fact was,
the boys did not know whether to take this new
comer in, and make him welcome, or not. They
sort of liked him ; he was good-natured, and ac-
commodating so far as they knew, but they knew
very little about him. He asked a good many
questions about the expected Nan Decker. He
had never heard of her before. Since he was to
live next door to her, it might be pleasant to
know what sort of a person she was. But the
boys could tell him very little. Seven years, at
their time of life, blots out a good many memo-
ries. They only knew that she was Nan Decker
who went away when her mother died, and who
had lived with the Marshalls ever since ; and all
agreed in being sorry for her that she was obliged
at last to coine home.

The whistling boy walked away, after having
cross-questioned first one, and then another, and

78 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

learned that they knew nothing. He was on his
way to the woods for one of his long summer
rambles. He felt a trifle lonely, and wished that
the boys had asked him to sit down under the
trees and have a good time with them.

He would have liked to hear Ted's composi-
tion, he said to himself ; the boy had a sweet
face, and a head that looked as though he might
be going to make a smart man, one of these days.
What was the matter with those fellows, he won-
dered, that they were not more cordial ?

He thought about it quite awhile, then plunged
into the mosses and ferns and gathered some
lovely specimens, which he arranged in the box
he carried slung over his shoulder, and forgot all
about the boys, and poor little Nan Decker. On
the way home, in the glow of the setting sun, he
thought of her again, and wondered if she had
come, and if she would be a sorrowful and home-
sick little girl. It seemed queer to think of being
homesick when one came home ! But then, it
was only a home in name ; he had not lived next
door to it for five weeks without discovering
that, and the little girl's mother was dead !
Poor Nan Decker! A shadow came over his
bright face for a moment as he thought of this.

JERRY ON ONE OF HIS SUMMER RAMBLES.

NEW FRIENDS. 79

His mother was dead. He resolved to speak a
kind word to the little girl the very first time
that he had a chance. And here in the moon-
light was his chance.

He stopped whistling at last and spoke : " If
it is anything about which I can help, I shall be
very glad to do it." A kind, cheerful voice.

Nettie looked up quickly and choked back her
tears. She was not one to cry, if there were to
be any lookers-on.

" I guess you are homesick," said the boy from
his horse's back ; and that isn't any wonder. I'm
homesick myself, nearly every night, especially
if it is moonlight. I don't know what there is
about the moon that chokes a fellow up so, but
I've noticed it often ; but then I feel all right in
the morning."

" Are you away from your home ? "

"I should say I was! Or rather home has
gone away from me. I haven't any home in par-
ticular, only my father, and he is away out in
California. I couldn't go there with him, and
since my school closed I am waiting here for him
to come back. It is home, you know, wher-
ever he is. He doesn't expect to be back yet for
months. So you and I ought to be pretty good

80 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIE NETS.

friends, we are such near neighbors. I live right
next door to you. We ought to be introduced.
You are Nannie Decker, I suppose, and I am
Jerry Mack at your service. I don't wonder you
are homesick ; folks always are, the first night."

" My name is Nanette," said Nettie, gently,
" but people who like me most always say Nettie :
and it isn't being homesick that makes me feel
so badly — though I am homesick ; but it is
being scared, and astonished, and, oh ! every-
thing. Nothing is as 1 thought it would be ; and
there are things about it that I did not under-
stand at all, or maybe I wouldn't have come ;
and now I am here, I don't know what to do."
She was very near crying again, in spite of a
watcher.

"I know," he said, nodding his head, and
speaking in a grave, sympathetic voice. Job
Smith — that is the man I am staying with —
has told me how it used to be with your father.
He says he was a very nice father indeed. I am
as sorry for you as I can be. But after all, I
wouldn't give up if I were you ; and I should be
real glad that I had come home to help him.
He needs a great deal of help. Folks reform,
you know. Why, people who are a great deal

JTEW FRIENDS. 81

worse than your father has ever been yet, have
turned right around and become splendid men.
If I were you I would go right to work to have
him reform. Then there's Norm — he needs
help, too ; and he ought to have it before he gets
any older, because it would be so much easier
for him to get started right now."

" I don't know the least thing to do," said
Nettie ; but she dried her eyes on her neat little
handkerchief as she spoke, and sat up straight,
and looked with earnest eyes at the boy on the
other side the fence. This sort of talk interested
and helped her.

"No; of course you don't. You haven't
studied these things up, I suppose. But there
is a great deal to do. My father is a temperance
man, and I have heard him talk. I know a hun-
dred things I would like to do, and a few that I
can do. I'll tell you what it is, Nettie, say we
start a society, you and I, and fight this whole
thing?

" We can begin with little bits of plans which
we can carry out now, and let them grow
as fast as we can follow them, and see what we
can do. Is it a bargain ? "

" There is nothing I would like so well, if you

82 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

will only show me how," said Nettie, and her
eyes were shining.

It was wonderful what a weight these few
words seemed to lift from her troubled heart.

The boy's face had grown more thoughtful.
He seemed in doubt just how to express what he
wanted to say next.

" I don't know how you feel about it," he said
as last, " but I know somebody who would be
sure to help in anything of this kind that we
tried to do — show us how, you know, and make
ways for us to get money, and all that."

"Who is it?"

Nettie spoke quickly now, for her heart
was beating loud and fast. Was there some-
body in this town who could be asked to come
to the rescue, and who was willing to give
such hearty help as that ? If such were the case,
she could see that a great deal might be accom-
plished. She waited for her new friend's answer,
but he looked down on the stick he was whit-
tling and gravely sharpened the end to a very
fine point, before he spoke again.

" I don't know what you think about such
things, but I mean — God. I know he is on our
side in this business, don't you V "

NEW FRIKNDS. 83

" Yes," said Nettie, thoughtfully, and her
manner changed.

Her voice which had been only eager before,
became soft and gentle, and she looked over at
the boy in the moonlight and smiled. " I know
Him," she said, " and I am His servant. It is
strange I forgot for a little while that He knew
all about this home, and father, and everything !
Maybe He wants me to help father. I mean to
begin right away. I will do every single thing
I can think of, to keep father, and Norm, and
everybody else from drinking liquor any more
forever."

There was a sudden spring from the saw-horse,
a long step taken over the low fence, and the boy
stood beside her.

"There are two of us," he said gravely.
" There is my hand on it. I am a Christian, too.
And father gave me a verse once, which always
helps me when I think of the rumsellers : * If God
be for us, who can be against us ! ' I know he is
for us, and so, though the rumsellers are against
us, and think they are going to beat, one of these
days he will show them ! What you and I want
to do is to keep working at it all we can, so as to
show that we believe in him."

84 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

" Now we are partners — Nettie Decker and
Jerry Mack, who knows what we can do ? Any-
how, we are friends, and will stand by each other
through thick and thin, won't we ? "

" Yes," said Nettie, " we will." And she rose
up from the doorstep, and they shook hands.

CHAPTER V.

A GREAT UNDEBTAKING.

JERRY turned away whistling. Did you
ever notice how apt boys are to whistle
when something has stirred their feelings very
much, and they don't intend that anybody but
themselves shall know it ?

Nettie went back into the little brown house to
see if her mother was comfortable for the night.
Her heart was lighter than she had thought it
ever would be again.

Everything was quiet within the house. The
children with their arms tossed about one an-
other, and their cheeks flushed with sleep, looked
sweeter than they often did awake. The heart-
sick mother had forgotten her sorrow again for
a little while, in sleep. Where father and Nona
were, Nettie did not know. It seemed strange
to go away and leave the light burning, and the
door unfastened. At home, they always gath-
85

86 LITTLE FISHEES .' AND THEIE NETS.

ered at about this hour, in the neat sitting-room,
and sang a hymn and repeated each a Bible
verse, and then Mr. Marshall prayed, and after
that she kissed Auntie Marshall and the others,
and tripped away to her pretty room. The con-
trast was very sharp. If it had not been for that
new friend whose voice she heard at this moment
softly singing a cheery tune, I think the tears
would have come again.

As it was, she slipped into Mrs. Job Smith's
neat kitchen. What a contrast that was to the
kitchen next door ! The first thing she saw was
the tall old clock in the corner." " Tick-tock,
tick-tock." She had never seen so large a clock
before ; she had never heard one speak in such a
slow and patronizing tone, as though it were
managing all the world. She looked up into its
face and smiled. It seemed like a great strong
friend.

There was nothing very remarkable about that
kitchen. At least I suppose you would not have
thought so, unless you had just spent an after-
noon in the Decker kitchen. Then you might
have felt the difference. The floor was painted
a bright yellow, and had gay rugs spread here
and there. The stove shone brilliantly, and the

A GREAT UNDERTAKING. 87

two chairs under the window were painted green,
with dazzling white seats. A high, old-fashioned,
wooden-backed rocker occupied a cosey corner
near the clock. A table set against the wall had
a bright spread on it, and newspapers, and a
book or two, and a pair of spectacles lay on it.
The lamp was in the centre, and was clear and
beautifully trimmed.

Simple enough things, all of them, but they
spoke to Nettie's heart of home.

There was a brisk step on the stair ; the door
opened, and Mrs. Smith's strong, homely face
appeared in sight. " Here you are," she said
cheerily, " tired enough to go to sleep, I dare say.
Well, the room is all ready for you. I guess you
won't be lonesome, for it is right out of Sarah
Ann's room, and my boy Jerry is across the hall.
You've got acquainted with Jerry, I guess ? I
saw you and him talking, out in the moonlight.
I'm glad of it. Jerry is good at chirking a body
up ; and there never was a better boy made than
he is.

" Now you get right to sleep as soon as you can,
and dream of all the nice things you can think
of. It is good luck to have nice dreams in a new
room, you know."

88 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

" Poor little soul ! " she said to herself as the
door closed after Nettie. " I hope she will be so
sound asleep that she won't hear her father and
Norm come stumbling home. Isn't it a mean
thing, now, that the father of such a little girl as
that should go and disgrace her?"

Mrs. Smith was talking to nobody, and so of
course nobody answered her ; and in a little while
that house was still for the night. Nettie, in the
clean, sweet-smelling woodhouse chamber, was
soon on her keees ; not sobbing out a homesick
cry, as she thought she would, as soon as ever
she had a chance, but actually thanking God for
these new friends ; and asking Him to be One in
this new society, and show them just what and
how to do. Then she went into sound sleep ; and
heard no stumbling, nor grumbling, though both
father and brother did much of it when at last
they shambled home.

The new plans came up for consideration early
the next morning. Before Nettie had opened her
eyes to the neatly whitewashed walls in the wood-
house chamber, she heard the sound of merry
whistling, keeping time to the swift blows of an
axe. Jerry was preparing kindlings. In a very
short time after that, he looked up to say good-

A GREAT UNDERTAKING. 89

morning, as Nettie was making her way across
the yard to the other house.

"Don't you want some of these nice chips?
They will make your kettle boil in a jiffy."

This was his good-morning ; he held out both
hands to her, full of broad smooth chips. " Aunt
Jerusha likes them better than any other kind ;
I keep her supplied. Wait, I'll carry them in."

" Oh, you needn't," Nettie said in haste, and
blushing. What would he think of the Decker
kitchen after being used to Mrs. Smith's ! But
he took long springs across the walk, vaulted the
fence and stood at the kitchen door waiting for
her. It looked even more desolate, in contrast
with the sunny morning, than it had the night
before. Nettie resolved to blacken the stove that
very day. " Do you know how to make a fire ? "
Jerry asked. "I do. I made aunt Jerusha's for
her, two mornings, but it is hard work to get
ahead of her."

Yes, Nettie knew how. She had made the fire
for the supper, in Mrs. Marshall's boarding house,
many a time. She proceeded to show her skill
at once ; Jerry, looking on admiringly, admitted
that she knew more about it than he did.

" You see, father and I board," he said apolo-

90 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

getically, " and there isn't much chance to learn
things. I'll tell you what I can do — get you a
fresh pail of water."

Before she could speak, he darted away.
There was a sound of feet coming down the un-
finished stairs, and Norm lounged into the room,
rubbing sleepy eyes, and looking as though he had
not combed his hair in a week. He stared at
Nettie as though he had never seen her before,
and answered her good-morning, with :

" I'll be bound if I didn't forget you ! Where
have you been all night ? "

"Asleep," said Nettie, brightly. "Now I
want to have breakfast ready by the time mother
comes out, to surprise her. Will you tell me
whether you have tea or coffee ? "

Norm laughed slightly. " We have what we
can get, as a rule. I heard mother say there
wasn't any tea in the house. And I don't believe
we have had any coffee for a month. I'd like
some, though ; I know that. I've got a quarter ;
I'll go and get some, if you will make us a first-
rate cup of coffee."

" Well," said Nettie, « I'll do my best."

She spoke a little doubtfully, having a shrewd
suspicion that the quarter ought to be saved for

A GREAT UNDERTAKING. 91

more important things than coffee ; but she did
not like to object to Norm's first expressed idea
of partnership ; so he went away, and when the
fresh water came, the teakettle was filled, the
table set, the potatoes washed and put in the
oven ; by the time Mrs. Decker appeared, Nettie,
with a very flushed face, was bending over her
hot griddle, testing the cake she had baked.

" Well, I do say ! " said Mrs. Decker, and the
tone expressed not only surprise, but gratitude.

There was a pleasant odor of coffee in the room,
and the potatoes were already beginning to hint
that they would soon be done. The cake that
Nettie had baked was as puffy and sweet as her
heart could desire.

" I believe you're a witch," said Mrs. Decker.
" I couldn't think of a thing for breakfast. Where
did you get them cakes ?"

" Made them," said Nettie ; " I found a cup of
sour milk ; Auntie Marshall used to let me make
them often for breakfast. Norm went after the
coffee ; and I guess it is good. I saved my egg
shell from the cakes to settle it."

" You're a regular little housekeeper," said
Mrs. Decker. " And so Norm went after coffee !
Did you ask him to ? Went of his own accord I

92 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIE NETS.

That's something wonderful for Norm. He used
to think of things for me but he don't any more."

Altogether, it was really almost a comfortable
breakfast, though it seemed to Nettie that she
would never get it ready. She was not used to
managing with so few dishes. Her father drank
three cups of coffee, said it was something like
living, and gave Nettie twenty-five cents,with the
direction that he hoped there would be something
decent to eat when they came home at noon.

Nettie's cheeks were red with more than the
baking of cakes, then. She was ashamed of her
father. How could he speak in a way to insult
his wife ! They went off hurriedly at last, Norm
and the father ; and the children who had been
silent, began to chatter the moment the door
closed after them. Mrs. Decker, too, began to
talk.

" He thinks twenty-five cents will buy a dinner
for us all, and keep us in clothes, and get new
furniture, and dishes ! He will have it that it is
because things are wasted that we have such
poor meals. As if I had anything to waste ! I
don't know what to do, nor which way to turn.
We need everything."

" Don't you think we had better clean house

A GBEAT UNDERTAKING. 93

to-day ? " Nettie asked a little timidly, as they
rose from the table and she began to gather the
dishes.

" Clean house ! " repeated the dazed mother.
"Why, yes, child, I suppose so. It needs it
badly enough. Oh, we can wash up the floor,
and the shelf. It doesn't take long; there are
not many things in the way. No furniture to
move. But it doesn't stay clean long, I can tell
you. Just one room in which to do everything !
I might have kept it looking better, though, if
I had not been sick. I have just had to let
everything go, child. Lying awake nights, and
worrying, have used me up."

She took the broom as she spoke and began to
sweep vigorously, scurrying the children out of
her way.

It was a long day, and a busy one. And at
night, the room certainly looked better. The
floor had been scrubbed with hot lye to get off
the grease, and the stove had been blackened
until the children shouted that it would do for
a looking-glass. Several other improvements
had been made. But after all, to ^Nettie's eyes
it was dreadfully bare and comfortless. Not a
cushioned chair, nor a rocker, nor anything that

94 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

to her seemed like home. All day she had been
casting glances at a closed door which opened
from the kitchen, and thinking her thoughts
about the room in there. A large square room,
perfectly empty. Why wasn't it used ? If for
nothing else, why didn't Norm sleep in it, instead
of in that dreadful unfinished attic where the
rats must certainly have full sweep? Or why
did not her mother move in there with the
trundle bed, instead of being cooped up in that
small bedroom ? Or why had they not prepared
it for her to sleep in, if they really did not want
it for anything else ? She gathered courage at
last, to ask questions.

"Oh, that room," her mother said with bitter-
ness, " when I first came here to live, we pleased
ourselves nights, after the children were in bed,
telling what we would have in it. We meant
to furnish it for a parlor. We were going to
have it carpeted ; he wanted a red carpet, and I
wanted a brown one with a little bit of pink in,
but land ! I would have taken one that was all
yellow, just to please him. And we were going
to have a lounge, and two rocking chairs, and I
don't know what not. And there it is, shut up.
I might have had it for a bedroom at first, but

A. GREAT UNDERTAKING. 95

I wouldn't. I wanted to save it. And then,
when I gave that all up, there was nothing to
fix it with. Norm couldn't sleep there without
curtains to the windows; no more could we; it
is right on the street, almost.

" And things keep getting worse and worse, so
I just shut the door and locked it and let it go.
If I had had a spare chair to put in, I might
have gone in there and cried, now and then, but
I hadn't even that. I tried to rent it ; but the
woman who was hunting rooms heard that your
father drank, and was afraid to come. Oh, we
have a splendid name in the place, you'll find.
We are just going to ruin as fast as a family
can ; that's the whole story."

In the middle of the afternoon, when Nettie had
done everything she could think of, unless some
money could be raised, and some clothes made,
so that the children could have the ones washed
which they were wearing, she stood in the back
door, wondering how, that could be brought
about, when Jerry appeared in his favorite seat
on the sawhorse.

" Everything done up for the day ? " he asked.

Nettie laughed.

" Everything has stopped for the want of

96 LITTLE FISHEKS: AND THEIR NETS.

things to do with," she said. "I don't see but
that will be the trouble with what we want to
do. Why, you can't do a single thing without
money; and where is it to come from?"

" That is one of the things we must think up,"
Jerry said gravely. "I have thought about it
some. This temperance business needs money.
One of the troubles with boys like Norm is that
they have no nice places to go to. Boys like to
meet together and talk things over, you know,
and have a good time, and how are some of them
going to do it? The church isn't the place, nor
the schoolhouse, and those fellows haven't pleas-
ant homes ; the only spot for them is the saloons.
I don't much wonder that they get in the habit
of going there. I have heard my father say that
saloons were the only places that were fixed up,
and lighted, where folks without any pleasant
homes were made welcome. Why, just look at
it in this town. There's your Norm. There are
two fellows who go with him a great deal. If
you meet one, you may be sure that the other
two are not far away. Their names are Alf
Barnes and Rick Walker. Neither of them
have as decent a home as Norm's, oh ! not by a
good deal. And he doesn't feel like inviting them

A GREAT UNDERTAKING. 97

into your kitchen to spend the evening. Should
you think he would?"

Warm as the day was, Nettie shivered. " I
should think they would rather stay out in the
street than to come there," she said.

" Well, now you see how it is. They don't
stay in the streets, such fellows don't. Not all
the time. They get tired, and sometimes it rains,
and in winter it is cold, and they look about
them for somewhere to go. There's a saloon,
bright and clean ; comfortable chairs, and good-
natured people. It is the only place that says
Come in ! to such fellows. Why shouldn't they
go in?

" I've heard my father talk about this by the
hour. In big cities they have rooms warmed
and lighted, and nicely furnished, on purpose for
such young men ; only father is always saying
that they don't begin to have enough of them ;
but in such a town as this, I would like to know
what the boys who haven't nice homes to stay
in, are expected to do with themselves evenings?
One of these days, when I am a man, that is the
way I am going to use all my extra money. I'll
hunt out towns where the fellows have just been
left to stay in the streets, or else go to the rum-

98 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

holes, and I'll fit up the nicest kind of a room
for them. Bright as gas can make it, and ele-
gant, you know, like a parlor; and I'll have
cakes, and coffee, and lemonades, and all those
things, cheaper than beer, and serve them in fine
style. Wouldn't that be a fine thing to do ? "

"Then the first thing," said Nettie, "is a
room."

Jerry turned round on his horse and looked
full at her and laughed. " You talk as though
it was to be done now," he said. " I was telling
what I would do in that dim future, when I be-
come a man."

" We might begin pieces of it now. Norm
will be too old when you are a man ; and so will
those others. There is our front room. If we
only had some furniture to put in it. My Auntie
Marshall made some real pretty seats once, out
of old boxes ; she padded them with cotton, and
covered them with pretty calico, and you can't
think how nice they were. I could make some,
if I had the boxes and the calico."

" I could get the boxes," said Jerry. " I know
a man in the blacksmith shop who has a brother
in the grocery down at the corner, and he could
get boxes for us of him, I'm pretty sure. He is

A GREAT UNDERTAKING. 99

a nice man, that blacksmith. I like him better
than any man in town, I believe. I could fix
covers on the bores myself, and do several other
things. I have a box of tools, and I often make
little things. I say, Nettie, let's fix up the front
room. I've often wondered what there was in
there. Would your mother let us have it?"

" She would let us have most everything, I
guess," Nettie said thoughtfully, " if she thought
it would do any good."

"All right. We'll make it do some good.
Let's set to work right away. The first thing as
you say, is a room. No, we have the room ; the
first thing is furniture. I'll go a*nd see Mr.
Collins this very evening. He is the black-
smith."

In less than half an hour from that time
Jerry stood beside Mr. Collins.

That gentleman had on his big leather apron,
and was busy about his work as usual.

"Boxes?" he said to Jerry. "Why, yes,
there are piles of them in his cellar, and out by
his back door. I should think he would be glad
to get rid of some. But what do you want of

them ? Furniture ? How are you going to make

•
furniture out of boxes ? What put such a notion

100 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

as that into your head, and what do you want of
furniture, anyhow?"

So Jerry sat down on a box and told the
whole story. Mr. Collins listened, and nodded,
and shook his head, and smiled grimly, occasion-
ally, and sighed, and in every possible way
showed his interest and appreciation.

" And so you two are going to take hold and
reform the town ? " he said at last. " Humph !
Well, it needs it bad enough ? if old boxes will
help, it stands to reason that you ought to have
as many as you want. I'll engage to see that you
get them."

When Mr "Collins told his brother-in-law, the
grocer, the two laughed a good deal, but the
blacksmith finished his story with, " Well, now
I tell you what it is — something is better than
nothing, any day; there's been nothing done
here for so long that I think it is kind of wonder-
ful that those two young things should start up
and try to do something."

"So do I, so do I," assented the grocer,
heartily, " and if old boxes will help 'em, why,
land, they're welcome to as many as they can
use. Tell the chap to step around here and
select his lumber, and I'll have it delivered."

A GREAT UNDERTAKING. 101

This message Jerry was not slow to obey ; so
it happened that the very next afternoon Mrs.
Job Smith stood in her back door and watched
with curious eyes the unloading of the grocer's
wagon. Six, seven, eight empty boxes ! " For
the land's sake, what be you going to do with
them ? " she asked Jerry.

Mrs. Job Smith had a great warm heart, but
no education to speak of ; and no mother had, in
her childhood, begged her a dozen times a day
not to use such expressions as "for the land's
sake ! " she knew no better than to suppose they
added emphasis to her words ; Jerry laughed.

" It is for the room's sake, auntie," he said.
" We are going to have a cabinet shop in the
barn loft. Mr. Smith said I might. I shall make
some nice things, auntie, see if I don't. Come
up in the loft, will you, and see my tool chest ? "

This last sentence waa addressed to Nettie
who had appeared in her back door to admire
the boxes. So the two climbed the ladder stairs,
Nettie a little timidly as one unused to ladders,
and Jerry with quick springs, holding out his
hand to her at the top, to help her in making the
final leap. Then he took from his pocket a cu-
rious little key which he explained to Nettie

102 LITTLE FISHERS I AND THEIR NETS.

would open that tool chest provided you knew
how to use it ; but he supposed that a man who
had stolen it might try for a week, and yet not
get into the chest.

A skilful touch, and the handsome chest was
open before her, displaying its wonders to her
pleased eyes. It was a well-stocked chest. Ch is-
els, and saws, and hammers, and augers, and
sharp, wicked-looking little things for which Net-
tie had no name, gleamed before her.

" How nice ! " she said at last. " How splen-
did ! It looks as though somebody who knew
how, could make splendid things with them."

" And I know how," said Jerry. " At least, I
know some things. I spent a summer down in
alittle country town where father had some busi-
ness ; and the man we boarded with kept a small
shop, where all sorts of things were made. Not
a great factory, you know, where they make a
thousand chairs of one kind, and a thousand of
another, and never make anything but chairs.
This was just a little country shop, where they
made a table one day, and a chair the next, and
a bedstead the next ; and you could watch the
men at work, and ask questions and learn ever so
much. I got so I could use tools, as well as the

A GREAT UNDERTAKING. 103

next one, Mr. Braisted said, whatever he meant
by that. Father liked to have me learn. He
said tools were the cleanest sharp things that he
knew anything about. I can make ever so many
things. I like to do it. I wonder I have not
been about it since I came here. Now what shall
we go at first ? What does your mother say about
the room ? "

" She is willing," said Nettie, " only she doesn't
see how much of anything can be done. She is
most discouraged, you see, and nothing looks
possible to her, I suppose."

"That's all right. She can't be expected to
know we can do things until ~we show her. If
she will let us try, that is all we need ask."

" She says the room ought to have some kind
of a carpet ; they always have carpets in home-
like rooms, she says; and I guess that is so.
Except in kitchens, of course."

Nettie hastened to say this, apologetically,
thinking of Mrs. Job Smith's bright yellow
floor.

Jerry whistled.

" That is so, I suppose," he said thoughtfully ;
"and they don't make carpets out of boxes,
nor with saws and hammers, do they ? I don't

104 LITTLE FISHEKS: AND THEIR NETS.

know how we would manage that. There must
be a way to do it, though. Let's put that one
side among the things that have got to be thought
about."

" And prayed about," said Nettie.

" Yes," he said, flashing a very bright look at
her, "I thought that, but somehow I did not like
to say it out, in so many words."

" I wonder why ? " said Nettie thoughtfully ;
" I mean, I wonder why it is so much harder to
say things of that kind than it is to speak about
anything else ? "

" Father used to say it was because people
didn't get in the habit of talking about religion
in a common sense way. They don't, you know ;
hardly anybody. At least hardly anybody that
I know; around here, anyway. Now my father
speaks of those things just as easy as he does
of anything."

" So does Auntie Marshall ; but I used to no-
tice that not many people did. Your father
must be a good man."

" There never was a better one ! "

Notwithstanding Jerry said all this with tre-
mendous energy, his voice trembled a little, and
there came one of those dashes of feeling over

A GREAT UNDERTAKING. 105

him which made him think that he must drop
everything and go to that dear father right
away.

" When he comes after you and takes you
away, what will I do ? "

Nettie's mournful tone restored the boy's cour-
age.

He laughed a little. "No use in borrow-
ing trouble about that. He is afraid he cannot
come back before winter, if he does then. I'm
going to get him to let me stay here until he does
come, though. And now we must attend to busi-
ness. What will you have first in my line?
Chairs, tables, sofas — why, anything you say,
ma'am."

And both faces were sunny again.

CHAPTER VI.

HOW IT SUCCEEDED.

~]V /TRS. JOB SMITH leaned against the ta-
-**>•*- ble in her bright kitchen, caught up the
edge of her apron in one hand, then leaned both
hands on her sides, and thought. Jerry had been
consulting her. Was there any way of planning
BO that the front room in the Decker house could
have a carpet ? He repeated all Mrs. Decker said
.about a room not being home-like without one,
and Mrs. Smith, at first inclined to combat the
idea, finally admitted that in winter a room where
you sat down to visit, did look kind of desolate
without a carpet, unless it was a kitchen, and had
a good-sized cook stove to brighten it up. There
was no denying that that square front room
would be the better for a carpet. At the same
time there was no denying that the Deckers
needed a hundred other things worse than they
did a carpet. But the hearts of the boy and girl
106

HOW IT SUCCEEDED. 107

were bent on having one ; and what the boy was
bent on, Mrs. Job Smith liked to have accom-
plished, and believed sooner or later that it would
be. The question was, How could she help to
bring it about ?

" There's that roll of rag carpeting, bran-new,"
she said aloud ; Mrs. Smith had spent a good
deal of her time alone and had learned to hold
long conversations with herself, arguing out
questions as well, sometimes she thought better,
than a second party could have done. At this
point she put her hands on her sides. " There's
enough of it, and more than enough. I had it
made for the front room the year poor Hannah
died, and sent me that boughten carpet which
just exactly fitted, and is good for ten years'
wear. That rag carpeting has been rolled up
and done up in tobacco and things ever since —
most two years. Sarah Jane doesn't need it,
and I don't know as I shall ever put it on the
kitchen. I don't like a great heavy carpet in a
kitchen, much, anyway ; rugs, and square pieces
that a body can take up and shake, are enough
sight neater, to my way of thinking. But I can't
afford to give away bran-new carpeting. To be
sure it only cost me the warp and the weaving ;

108 LITTLE FISHEES: AND THEIR NETS.

and I got the warp at a bargain, and old Mother
Turner never did ask me as much for weaving
as she did other folks. The rags was every one
of them saved up. Poor Hannah used to send
me a lot of rags, and Sarah Jane and I sewed
them at odd spells when we wouldn't have been
doing anything. It is a good deal of bother to
take care of it, and I'm always afraid the moths
will get ahead of me, and eat it up. I might sell
it to her for what the warp and the weaving cost
me. But land ! what would she pay with ? I
might give her a chance to do ironing. I have
to turn away fine ironing every week of my life
because I can't do more than accommodate my
old customers. Who knows but she is a pretty
good ironer ? I might give her the coarse parts
to iron, and watch her, and find out. Job is al-
ways at me to have somebody help with the big
ironings, and I have always said I wouldn't have
a girl bothering around, I would rather take less
to do. But then, she is a decent quiet body, and
that Nettie is just a little woman. She will have
to do something to help along if they ever get
started in being decent ; perhaps ironing is the
thing for her, and I can start her if she knows
how to do it. For the matter of that, I might

HOW IT SUCCEEDED. 109

teach her how, if she wanted to learn. To be sure
they need other things more than carpets, but
it wouldn't take her long to pay for this, if I just
charge for the weaving. I might throw in the
warp, maybe, seeing I got it at a bargain. The
two are so bent on having a carpet for that
room ; and Jerry, he said he had prayed about
it, and while he was on his knees, it kind of
seemed to him as though I was the one to get to'
think it out. That's queer now ! Jerry don't
know anything about the carpet rolled up in to-
bacco in the box in the garret ; why should he
think that I could help ? I feel almost bound to,
somehow, after that. I don't like to have Jerry
disappointed, nor the little girl either, now that's
a fact. I take to that little Nettie amazingly.
Well, I know what I'll do. I'll talk with Job
about it, and if he is agreed, maybe we will see
what she says to it."

This last was a kind of " make believe," and
the good woman knew it ; Job Smith thought that
his wife was the wisest, most prudent, most capa-
ble woman in the world, and besides being sure to
agree to whatever she had to propose, he was
himself of such a nature that he would have given
away unhesitatingly the very clothes he wore, if

110 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

he thought somebody else needed them more
than he. There was little need to fear that Job
Smith would ever put a stumbling-block in the
way of any benevolence.

But who shall undertake to tell you how aston-
ished Mrs. Decker was when Mrs. Smith, having
duly considered, and talked with Sarah Jane,
and talked with Job, and unrolled the tobacco-
smelling carpet, and examined it carefully, did
finally come over to the Decker home with her
startling proposition. It is true that a carpet
had taken perhaps undue proportions in this
poor woman's eyes. Her best room during all
the years of her past life had never been without
a neat bright carpet; it had been the pleasant
dream of her second married life, so long as any
pleasantness had been left to allow of dreaming ;
and she could not get away from the feeling that
people who had not a scrap of carpeting for their
best room, were very low down. She opened
her eyes very wide while listening to Mrs.
Smith's rapidly told story. What kind of a car-
pet could it be that was offered to her for simply
the price of the weaving ? for Job and his wife
after some figuring with pencil and paper, had
agreed together heartily to throw in the warp.

HOW IT SUCCEEDED. Ill

She went over to the neat kitchen and examined
the carpet. It was bright and pretty. There
was a good deal of red in it, and there was a
good deal of brown ; a blending of the two col-
ors which had been the subject of much discus-
sion between herself and husband in the days
when Mr. Decker talked anything about the com-
forts of his home. How well it would look in
the square room which had two windows, and
was really the only pleasant room in the house.
Surely she could iron enough to pay for that.

" I am not very strong," she said with a sigh.
" I used to be, but of late I've been failing. But
Nannie is so handy, and so willing, that she
saves me a great deal, and she has a notion that
she would like to fix up the front room and try
to get hold of my Norm. It would be worth
trying, maybe, but I don't know. We are very
low down, Mrs. Smith."

And then Mrs. Decker sank into one of the
green painted chairs and cried.

" Of course it is worth trying," Mrs. Smith
said, bustling about, as though she must find
some more windows to raise ; tears always made
her feel as though she was choking. u If I were
you I would have a carpet, and curtains to the

112 LITTLE FISHEES: AND THEIE NETS.

windows, and lots of nice things, and make a
home fit for that boy of yours to have a good
time in. There is nothing like a nice pleasant
home to keep a boy from going wrong."

Before Mrs. Decker went home, she had prom-
ised to try the ironing the very next week, and
if she could do it well enough to suit Mrs. Smith,
the carpet should be bought.

"Poor thing ! " said Mrs! Smith, looking after
her, and rubbing her eyes with the corner of her
apron. " The ironing shall suit ; if she irons
wrinkles into the collars and creases in the cuffs,
I won't say a word ; only I guess maybe I won't
give her collars and cuffs to iron ; not till she
learns how. I ought to have done something to
kind of help her along before ; only I don't know
what it would have been. It takes that boy of
mine to set folks to work."

Meantime, " that boy " sat in the kitchen door,
studying. Not from a book, but from his own
puzzled thoughts. He did not see his way clear.
Under Nettie's direction he had planned a very
satisfactory sofa with a back to it, and two chairs,
but how to get the material needed to finish
them, and also for curtains for the new room, had
sent Nettie home in bewilderment, and stranded

HOW IT SUCCEEDED. 113

him on the doorstep in the middle of the after-
noon to think it out.

" How much stuff does it take for curtains,
anyhow ? "

"For curtains?" said Mrs. Smith, coming
back with a start from her ironing table and the
plan she had for teaching Mrs. Decker to iron
shirts. " Why, that depends on what kind of
stuff it is, and how many curtains you want, and
how big the windows are."

" Well, what do they use for curtains?"

Mrs. Smith still looked bewildered.

" A great many things, Jerry. They have lace
curtains, and linen ones, and muslin ones, and in
some of the rooms up at Mrs. Barlow's,on the hill,
you know, when I helped her do up curtains that
time, they had great heavy silk things, or maybe
velvet, though the stuff didn't look much like
either. I don't rightly know what it was, but it
was heavy, and soft, and satiny, and shone like
gold, in some places."

Jerry turned around on the doorstep and
looked full at Mrs. Smith, and laughed.

"I know," he said, " I have seen such curtains.
They are damask. I am not thinking about lace,
and damask, and all that sort of thing. I mean

114 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

for Mrs. Decker's front room. What could be
used that would do, and how much would they
cost ? "

" Surely 1 " said Mrs. Smith, coming down to
everyday life. " What a goose I was. I might
have known what you were thinking about.
Why, let me see. Cheese cloth makes real pretty
curtains ; if you have a bit of bright calico to put
over the top, and a nice hem in, or maybe some
bright calico at the bottom to help them hang
straight, I don't know as there is anything much
prettier. Though to be sure they aren't good
for much to keep people from looking in ; and
they aren't quite suitable for winter. I suppose
you want to plan for winter, too ? I'll tell you
what it is, I believe that unbleached muslin makes
about as pretty a curtain as a body could have ;
put bright red at the top and bottom, and they
look real nice."

" What is unbleached muslin ? I mean, how
much does it cost ? "

" Why," said Mrs. Smith, dropping into her
rocking-chair, and folding her hands on her lap
to give her mind fully to the important question,
"as to that, I should have to think; I'm not
very good at figures. Unbleached muslin costs

HOW IT SUCCEEDED. 115

about eight cents a yard, or maybe ten ; we'll
say ten, because I've always noticed that was
easier to calculate. Ten cents a yard, and two
windows, say two yards to each, and no, two
yards to each half, four yards to each, and twice
four is eight, eight yards at ten cents a yard.
How much would that be, Jerry ? You can tell
in a minute, I dare say."

" Eighty cents," said Jerry with a sigh. " I
am afraid she will think that is a great deal.
And then there's the red to put on them. What
does that cost ? "

" Why, that ought to be oil calico, because the
other kind ain't fast colors. I don't much be-
lieve you could get those curtains up short of
fifty cents apiece ; and that is a good deal for
curtains, that's a fact. Paper ones don't cost so
much, but then there's the rollers and the fasten-
ings, I don't know but they do cost just as much.
And then they tear."

"I don't want her to have paper ones," said
Jerry decisively. " A dollar for the curtains,
and I don't know how much more for the furni-
ture. She can't imagine where the money is to
come from."

" I could tell where it ought to coma from,"

116 LITTLE FISHEKS: AND THEIR NETS.

said Mrs. Smith, nodding her head and looking
severe. " It ought to come out of Joe Decker's
pocket. He makes his dollar a day, even now,
when he doesn't half work ; Job said so only last
nisrht. But furniture is dreadful dear stuff,

O *

Jerry, worse than curtains. And they need
about everything. I never did see such a deso-
late house ! And those little girls need clothes."

"Nettie is going to make them some clothes,"
said Jerry ; " she has some that she has outgrown ;
a great roll in her trunk; she is going to make
them over to fit the little girls. She is at work
at some of them to-day. And you know, auntie,
I am making the furniture."

" Making it ! "

" Well, making its skeleton. If we had some
clothes to put on it, I guess it would be furniture.
I've made a sofa, and two chairs, and I'm at
work at a table. Only I would like to see how
the things were going to look, before I went any
farther."

"Making furniture!" repeated dazed Mrs.
Smith ; and she shook her head. " I don't see
how you can ! You can do a great many things
that no other boy ever thought of; but I'm
afraid that's beyond you."

HOW IT SUCCEEDED. 117

"Why, you see, auntie, she has seen some
made, and she showed me what to do with ham-
mer and nails. You make a frame, just the
size you want for a sofa, and put a back to it,
then it is padded with cotton, and covered with
something bright, cretonne, I think she said
they called it, only it wasn't real cretonne, but
a cheap imitation, and they tack a skirt to the
thing in puckers, so," and he caught up a bit of
Mrs. Smith's apron to illustrate.

" I see," she said, nodding her head and speak-
ing in an admiring tone. " What a contriving
little thing she is! And what about the
chairs?"

"The chairs are served in very much the
same way. The table is just two flat boards and
a post between them, nailed firmly, then they
tack red calico, or blue, or whatever they want,
around it, and cover it with thin white cheese
cloth or some lacey stuff, she had the name of
it, but I've forgotten ; it doesn't cost much, she
said, and tie a sash around it, and it looks like
an hour glass. The question is, where are the
cotton and calico to come from ? "

" Well," said Mrs. Smith, " you two do beat
all ! It can't take much stuff for a little table ;

118 LITTLE FISHEKS: AND THEIK NETS.

and I can see that they might be real pretty. I
want a table myself, to stand under the glass in
my front room. What if you was to make two,
and I'd get cloth enough for two, and she would
do mine and hers, to pay for the cloth?"

Jerry sprang up from his doorstep, and came
over and put both arms around Mrs. Smith's
trim waist.

" Hurrah ! " he said ; " you are the contriver.
That will do splendidly. I'll go this minute and
set up the skeleton of another table. I have
two boards there which will just do it. Then
we'll think out a way to get the rest of the
stuff."

Now Nettie, busy with her fingers in the
house next door, had not left the others to do
all the thinking. She knew the price of " oil
calico," and imitation cretonne, and unbleached
muslin ; she knew to a fraction how many yards
of each would be needed, and the sum total ap-
palled her. Yet she too knew that her father
earned at least a dollar a day, and did not give
them two a week to live on. This her mother
had told her.

Also she knew that on this Saturday even-
ing at about six o'clock, he would probably

HOW IT SUCCEEDED. 119

be paid for his week's work. Couldn't she con-
trive to coax some of the money from his keep-
ing into hers ? She had hinted the possibility of
her mother's getting hold of it, and Mrs. Decker
had said that the bare thought of trying made
her feel faint and sick; that if she had ever
seen her father in a passion such as he could get
into when things did not go just to suit him,
she would know what it was to ask him for any-
thing. Nettie, who had not yet been at home a
week, had some faint idea of what her father
might do and say if he were very angry. Never-
theless, she was trying to plan a way to meet
him before he left the shop, and secure some of
that money if she could.

With this thought in view, she presently laid
aside the neat little petticoat on which she had
been sewing, brushed her hair, put on her brown
ribboned hat, and her brown gloves, watched
her chance while the children were quarreling
over an apple that Jerry had given them, and
stole out in the direction of the shop where her
father worked. She would not ask Jerry to go
with her, though he looked after her from the
barn window and wished she had ; if her father
was to grow angry and swear, and possibly

120 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

strike, no one should know it but herself, if she
could help it.

I must not forget to tell you of one thing that
she did before starting. She went into her
mother's little tucked-up bedroom, put a nail
over the door, which she had herself arranged
for a fastening, and knelt there so long by the
barrel which did duty as a table, that her mother,
had she seen her, would have been frightened.
But Nettie felt that she needed courage for this
undertaking ; and she knew where to get it.

Then she had to walk pretty fast ; it was
later than she thought, for just as she turned the
corner by the shop where her father worked, the
six o'clock bell began to ring.

" Halloo ! " said one of the men, standing in
the door while he untied his leather apron.
" What party is this coming down the street ?
The neatest little woman I've seen for many a
day. A stranger in this part of the world, I
reckon. Doesn't fit in, somehow. Do you know
who it is, Decker ? "

And Mr. Decker, thus appealed to, came to
the door in time to receive Nettie's bow and
smile.

" That's my girl," he said, and a look of pride

HOW IT SUCCEEDED. 121

stole into his face. She was a trim little crea-
ture ; it was rather pleasant to own her as his
daughter.

" Your girl !" and the astonishment which the
man felt was expressed by a slight whistle. " I
want to know now if that is the little one who
went away six, seven years ago, was it ? She's
as pretty a girl as I've seen in a year. Looks
smart, too. I say, Decker, you better take good
care of her. She is a girl to be proud of."

At just that moment Nettie sprang up the
steps.

"May I come in, father?" she said; UI
wanted to see where you worked." Her voice
was clear and sweet. All the men in the shop
turned to look. The foreman who was paying
Mr. Decker, and who had begun severely with
the sentence : " Two half-days off again, Decker ;
that sort of thing won't " — stopped short at the
sound of Nettie's voice, and gave him the two two
dollar bills, and two ones, without further words.
Six dollars ! If only she could get part of it !
How should the delicate matter be managed ?
Suddenly Nettie acted on the thought which
came to her. What more natural than for a child
to ask for money just then and there? Sh«>

122 LITTLE FISHEES: AND THEIK NETS.

needed it, and why not say it? Perhaps he
would not like to refuse her entirely before all
the men. And poor Nettie had a very dis-
agreeable fear that he would certainly refuse her
if she waited until the men were gone ; even if
she found a chance to ask him before he reached
the saloon just next door, where he spent so
much of his money. Or at least where his wife
thought he spent it.

"May I have some of that, father? I want
some money. That was one of the things I
came after."

This was certainly the truth. Why not treat
it as a matter of course ? " Why should I take
it for granted that he is going to waste all his
money ? " said poor Nettie to herself. All the
same she knew she had good reason for supposing
that he would.

"Money!" he said, as he seized the bills.
" What do you know about money, or want with
it?"

" Oh, I want things. The little girls must
have some shoes. I promised to see about it as
soon as I could. And then I want to buy your
Sunday dinner ; a real nice one."

The tone was a winning, coaxing one. Nettie

HOW IT SUCCEEDED. 123

did not know how to coax ; was not very well
acquainted with her father ; did not know how
he would endure coaxing of any sort, but some
way must be tried, and this was the best one
she knew of.

" Divide with her, Decker," said the man who
had first called his attention to Nettie. " She
looks as though she could buy a dinner, and
cook it too. If I had a trim little girl like that
to look out for my comfort, hang me if I wouldn't
take pleasure in keeping her well supplied." He
sighed as he spoke, and nobody laughed ; for
most of them remembered that the man's home
was desolate. Wife and daughter both buried
only a few months before. This man sometimes
spent his earnings on beer, but he was accus-
tomed to say that there was nobody left to care ;
and that while he had them, he took care of
them ; which was true. Nettie looked up at the
man with a curious pitiful interest. His tone
was very sad. She was grateful to him for his
words. Was there possibly something some-
time that she could do for him ? She would re-
member his face.

All the men were looking now, and there was
Nettie's outstretched hand. Her face a good

124 LITTLE FISHEES : AND THEIE NETS.

deal flushed ; but it wore an expectant look.
She was going to believe in her father as long as
she could.

" Go ahead, Joe, divide with the girl. Such a
handsome one as that. You ought to be proud
of the chance."

" You have something worth taking care of,
it seems, Decker." It was the foreman who
said this, as he passed on his way to the other
side of the room where the men were waiting.

Whether it was a father's pride, or a father's
shame, or both these motives which moved Mr.
Decker, I cannot say, but he actually took a two
and a one and placed them in her hands as he
said hastily, " There, my girl, I've given you
half ; you can't complain of that."

CHAPTER VH.

LONG STOBIES TO TELL.

IF only I had a good picture of Nettie, so that
you might see the radiant look in her eyes
just then !

She had hoped for the money, she had tried
to trust her father, but she was, nevertheless,
wonderfully surprised when her hand closed
over three dollars.

" O father ! " she said, " how nice." And then
her courage rose. " Will you go with me, father,
to buy the shoes ? The little girls are so eager
for them. I promised to take them with me to
Sunday-school to-morrow, if I could get shoes,
but I don't know how to buy them very well.
Could you go?"

The shoe shop was f-arther down the street, in

an opposite direction from the one where Mr.

Decker generally' got his liquor, and wily Nettie

remembered that there was a street leading from

125

126 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

it which would take them home without passing
the saloon. Of course it was true that she needed
his help to select the shoes, but it was also true
that she was very glad she did. Mr. Decker was
untying his apron, and rolling down his sleeves ;
he felt very thirsty — the sight of the money
seemed to make him thirsty. He had meant to go
directly to the saloon, give them one dollar on the
old bill, and spend what he needed, only a very
little, on beer. With the rest of the money he
honestly meant to pay his rent. Yet no one
ought to have understood better than he that he
would not be likely to get away from that saloon
with a cent of money in his pocket. For all that,
he wanted to go. He wished Nettie would go
away and let him alone. But the men were
watching.

"You can't fit the children to shoes without
having them along," he said gruffly.

But Nettie was ready for him : " Oh ! " she said,
swiftly unrolling a newspaper, " I brought their
feet along." And with a bright little laugh she
plumped down two badly worn shoes on the work
table.

" That left>footed one is Satie's. The other
was so dreadfully worn out, I was afraid the

LONG STORIES TO TELL. 127

shoemaker couldn't measure it. This is the best
one of Susie's."

It was plain to any reasonable eyes that two
pairs of shoes were badly needed.

" I guess they need other things besides
shoes."

It was the father who said this, and they were
out on the street, and he was actually being
drawn by Nettie's eager hand in the opposite
direction from the saloon.

" O no," she said ; " I had some clothes which
I had outgrown ; I have been at work at them
all day, and they make nice little suits. Auntie
Marshall sent them each a cunning little white sun-
bonnet. When we get the shoes, they will look
just as nice as can be. You don't know how
pleased they are about going to Sunday-school.
I arn so glad they will not be disappointed to-
morrow."

The shoes were bought, good, strong-looking
little ones, and wonderfully cheap, perhaps be-
cause Nettie did the bargaining, and the man
who knew how scarce her money must be, was
eorry for the little woman. It did seem a great
deal to pay out — two whole dollars — for shoes
when everything was needed. It was warm

128 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

weather, perhaps she ought to have let the little
girls go barefoot for awhile, but then she could
not take them to Sunday-school very well; at
least, it seemed to her that she couldn't ; and
father was willing to have them bought now.

o o

Who could tell when he would be willing again ?

He stood in the door and waited for her, won-
dering why he did so, why he could not leave
her and go back to that saloon and get his drink.
One reason was, that she gave him no chance.
She appealed to him every minute for advice.

" Father, can we go to market now ? I want
to get just a splendid piece of meat for your
Sunday dinner. I know just how to cook it in
a way that you will like."

" I guess you can do that without me ; I have
an errand in another direction." They were on
the street again. She caught his hand eagerly.
"O, father, do please come with me to the mar-
ket, there are so many men there I don't like to
go alone ; and it is so nice to take a walk with
you. I haven't had one since I came. "Won't
you please come, father ? "

Joe Decker hardly knew what to think of him-
self. There was something in her soft coaxing
voice which seemed to take him back a dozen

LONG STOKIES TO TELL. 129

years into the past, and which led him along in
spite of himself.

The meat was bought, Nettie looking wise
over the different pieces, and insisting on a neck
piece, which the boy told her was not fit to eat.

" I know how to make it fit," she said, with a
little nod of her head.

" I want three pounds of it. And then, father,
I want two carrots and two onions ; I'm going to
make something nice."

Only sixty-eight cents of her precious money
left!

" I did need some butter," she said mourn-
fully, " and that in the tub looks nice, but I guess
I can't afford it this time."

" How much is butter ? " asked Mr. Decker,
suddenly rising to the needs of the moment.

"Twenty-five," said the grocer, shortly. He
did not know the trim little woman who had paid
for her carrots and onions, and held them in a
paper bag at this moment, but he did know Joe
Decker and had an account against him. He had
no desire to sell him any butter.

"Then give me two pounds, and be quick
about it." And Mr. Decker put down a dollar
bill on the counter.

130 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIB NETS.

The man seized it promptly and began to ar-
range the butter in a neat wooden dish, while he
said, " By the way, Mr. Decker, when will it be
convenient to settle that little account ? "

" I'll do it as soon as I can," said Mr. Decker,
speaking low, for Nettie turned toward him
startled ; this was worse than she thought. She
had not known of any accounts. Mr. Decker
himself had forgotten it until he stood in the
very door. It was months since he had bought
groceries.

" Is it muchy father ? " Nettie asked, and he
replied pettishly :

" Much ? no. It is only a miserable little
three, dollars. I mean to pay it ; he needn't be
scared." Yet why he shouldn't be " scared,"
when he had asked for those three dollars per-
haps fifty times, Mr. Decker did not say.

" Father," said Nettie, in a very low voice,
" couldn't you let the man keep the fifty cents,
on the account, and that would be a beginning ?"

But this was too much.

" No," said Mr. Decker ; " I will pay my bills
when I get ready and not before ; and it is none
of your business when I do it. You must not
meddle with what does not belong to you."

LONG STOKIES TO TELL. 131

" No, sir ; " said Nettie, though it was hard
work to speak just then ; there was a queer little
lump in her throat. She was not in the habit of
being spoken to in this way. The butter was
ready, and the man handed back the change.

Mr. Decker pocketed it, saying as he did so,
" I'll have some money for you next week, I
guess." And then they went away.

" If it hadn't been for the girl I'd have kept
the fifty cents and got so much out of the old
drunkard ; but someway I couldn't bring myself
to doing it with her looking on." This was
what the grocer muttered as they walked away.

But they did not hear him. Nettie was bent
now on tolling her father down the cross street
to go home.

" Father," she said, " we are going to have
milk toast for supper. Mother said she would
have it ready, and toast spoils, you know, if it
stands long. Couldn't we go home this way and
make it shorter?"

He was a good deal astonished that he did it.
He was still very thirsty, but there really came
to him no decent excuse for deserting his little
girl and going back to the saloon. And they
walked into, the house together, so astonishing

132 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

Mrs. Decker that she almost dropped the teapot
which she was filling with hot water. What-
ever other night, Mr. Decker contrived to get
home to supper, he was always late on Saturday,
and in a worse condition than at any other time.

That was really a nice little supper time. Mrs.
Decker had done her part well, not for the hus-
band whom she did not expect, but in gratitude
to the little girl who had worked so hard all the
week for herself and her neglected babies. The
toast was well made, and the tea was good.
Besides, there was a treat ; not ten minutes be-
fore, Mrs. Job Smith had sent in a plate of gin-
ger cookies ; " for the children," she said, and
the children each had one. So did the father
and mother.

Mr. Decker washed his hands before he sat
down to the table, for the tablecloth had been
freshly washed and ironed that day, and his
wife had on a clean calico apron and a strip of
white cloth about her neck, and her hair was
smooth.

. " There ! " said Nettie, displaying her meat,
" now, mother, we can have that stew for to-
morrow, just as we planned. Father got the
meat, and the carrots, »nd everything. And

LONG STORIES TO TELL. 133

what do you think, little girlies, father bought
you each a pair of shoes ! "

Mrs. Decker set down the teapot again. She
was just in the act of giving her husband a cup
of tea, and the color came and went on her face
so queerly that Nettie for a moment was fright-
ened. As for the father, he felt very queer.
Scared and silent as his lit.tle girls generally were
in his presence, they could not keep back a little
squeal of delight over this wonderful piece of
news. Altogether, Mr. Decker could not help
feeling that it really was a nice thing to be able
to buy shoes and meat for his family.

" Come," he said, " give us your tea if you're
going to ; I'm as dry as a fish."

And the tea was poured.

The toast was good, and there was plenty of
it, and someway it took longer to eat it than this
family usually spent at the supper-table ; and
then, after supper, the shoes had to be tried on,
and Nettie called the little girls to their father
to see if the shoes fitted, and he took Sate up on
his lap to examine them, which was a thing that ^
had not happened to Sate in so long that Susie
scowled and expected that she would be fright-
ened, but Sate seemed to like it, and actually

134 UTTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

stole an arm around her father's neck and patted
his cheek, while he was feeling of the shoe.
Then Mrs. Decker had a happy thought.

She winked and motioned Nettie into the bed-
room and whispered : " Don't you believe lie
might like to see the children in their nice
clothes ? I ain't seen him notice them so much
in a year ; and he hasn't been drinking a mite,
has he ? "

" Not a drop," said Nettie ; « I'll dress Susie."
And she flew out to the kitchen.

"Father, just you wait until Susie is ready to
Bhow you something. Come here, Susie, quick."
And almost in less time than it takes me to tell
it, Susie was whisked into the pretty petticoats
and dress which had been shortened and tight-
ened for her that day. The dress was a plain,
not over-fine white one ; but it was beautifully
ironed, and the white sunbonnet perched on the
trim head completed the picture and made a
pretty creature of Susie. I am sure I don't
wonder that the child felt a trifle vain as she
squeaked out in her new shoes to show herself
to her father. She had not been neatly dressed
long enough to consider it as a matter of course.

" Upon my word ! " said Mr. Decker, and

LONG STOEIE8 TO TELL. 135

there he stopped. This was certainly a wonder-
ful change. He looked at his little daughter
from head to foot, and could hardly believe his
eyes. What a pretty child she was. And to
think that she was his ! Certainly she ought to
have new shoes, and new clothes. Sate's arm
was still about his neck,, and Sate's sweet full
lips were suddenly touched to his rough cheek.

" I've got new clothes too," she said sweetly,
" only I doesn't want to get down from here to
put them on."

The father turned at that and kissed her. Then
he set her down hastily and got up. Something
made his eyes dim. He really did not know what
was the matter with him, only it all seemed to
come to him suddenly that he had some very
nice children, and that they ought to have
clothes and food and chances like others, and
that it was his own fault they hadn't.

Nettie hated tobacco, but she went herself in
haste and lighted her father's pipe and brought
it to him ; if he must smoke, it would be so much
better to have him sit in the door and do it
rather than to go off down to that saloon. She
hated the saloon worse than the tobacco. As
she brought the pipe, she said within her hope-

136 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

ful little heart : " Maybe sometime he won't,
want either to drink or smoke. I most know we
can coax him to give them both up ; and then
won't that be nice ? "

One thing was troubling her ; as soon as she
could, she followed her mother into the yard and
questioned, " Do you know where Norm is ? "

Yes, Mrs. Decker knew. He came home just
after Nettie had gone out, and said he had an
hour's holiday ; their room had closed early for
Saturday, and he was going to wash up and go
down street before supper.

" My heart was in my mouth," said the poor
mother; "because when there is a holiday he
gets into worse scrapes than he does any other
time ; he goes with a set that don't do anything
but have holidays, and they "always" have some
mischief hatched up to get Norm into. I never
see the like of the boys in this town for getting
others into scrapes ; but I didn't dare to say a
word, because Norm thinks he is getting too big
for me to give him any words, and just as he was
going out, that boy next door — Jerry, you said
his name was, didn't you? — he came out and
called Norm, real friendly, and they stood talk-
ing together ; he appeared to be arguing some-

LONG STORIES TO TELL. 137

thing, and Norm holding off, and at last Norm
came in and wanted the tin pail and said he had
changed his mind and was going fishing ; and
they went off together, them two." And Mrs.
Decker finished the sentence with a rare smile.
She was grateful to Jerry for carrying off her
boy, and grateful to Nettie for thinking about
him and being anxious.

" Good ! " said Nettie with a happy little
laugh, " then we will have some fried fish to-
morrow for breakfast. What a nice day to-
morrow is going to be."

Mr. Decker was a good deal surprised at him-
self, but he did not go down town again that
night. After he had smoked, he felt thirsty, it
is true, and at that very minute Nettie came in
with the one glass whi'ch they had in the house,
and it was full of lemonade.

"Did he want a nice cool drink?" she had
two lemons which she bought with her own
money, and she knew how to make good lemon-
ade, Auntie Marshall used to say.

The father drank the cool liquid off almost at
a swallow, said it was good, and that he guessed
she knew how to do most things. By this time
the little girls had been tucked away to bed,

138 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

and just as Mr. Decker rose up to say he guessed
he would go down street awhile, Norm appeared
with a string of fish. They were beauties ; he
declared that he never had such luck in his life ;
that fellow just bewitched the fish, he believed,
so they would rather be caught than not. Then
came a talk about dressing them. Norm said
he was sure he did not know how ; and Mr.
Decker said, a great fellow like him ought to
know how. When he was a boy of fourteen he
used to catch fish for his mother almost every
day of his life, and dress them too ; his mother
never had to touch them until they were ready to
cook. Then Nettie, flushed and eager, said :

" O father, then you can show me how to do
it, can't you? I would like to learn just the
right way." And the father laughed, and looked
at his wife with something like the old look on
his face, and said he seemed to be fairly caught.
And together they went to the box outside, and
in the soft summer night, with the moon looking
down on them, Nettie took her lesson in fish
dressing.

When the work was all done, Norm having
hovered around through it all, and watched, and
helped a little, . Mr.. Decker .went .back to the

LONG STOBTES TO TELL. 139

kitchen and yawned, and wondered how late it
was. No clock in this house to give any idea of
time. There used to be, but one day it got out
of order and Mr. Decker carried it down street to
be fixed, and never brought it back. Mrs. Decker
asked about it a good many times, then went
herself in searcli of it, and found it in the saloon
at the corner.

" He took it for debt," the owner told her,
and a poor bargain it was ; it never came to time,
any better than her husband did. However,
just as Mr. Decker made his wonderment, the
old clock over at Mrs. Smith's rose up to its
duty, and dignifiedly struck nine.

" Well, I declare," said Mr. Decker, " I did
not think it was as late as that. There ain't any
evenings now days. Well, I guess, after all, I'll
go to bed. I'm most uncommon tired to-night
somehow."

Norm had already gone up to his room ; and
Mrs. Decker when she heard her husband's
words, hurried into the bedroom to hide two
happy tears.

" I declare for it, I believe you have bewitched
him," she said to Nettie, who followed her to
ask about the breakfast ; " I ain't known him to

140 LITTLE FISHEKS: AND THEIB NETS.

do such a thing not in two years, as to go to bed
at nine o'clock without ever going down street
again. He don't act like himself ; not a rnite.
I was most scared when I saw him take Sate in
his arms; that child don't remember his doing it
before, I don't believe. Did he really buy the
things, child, and pay for them ? Well, now, it
does beat all ! And Saturday night, too ; that
has always been his worst night. Child, if you
get hold of your father, and of my Norm, there
ain't anything in this world too good for you.
I'd work my fingers to the bone any time to help
along, and be glad to."

It was all very sweet. Nettie ran away be-
fore the sentence was fairly finished, waiting
only to say, " Good-night, mother 1 " She had
done this every night since she came, but to-
night she reached up and touched her lips to the
tall woman's thin cheek. Poor Nettie had been
used to kissing somebody every night when she
went to bed. It had made her homesick not to
do it. But she had not wanted to kiss anybody in
this house, except the little girls. To-night, she
wanted to kiss this mother. She reached the
back door, then stopped and looked back ; her
father sat in his shirt sleeves, in the act of pul-

LONG STORIES TO TELL. 141

ling off one boot. Should she tell him good-
night ? He had not been there for her to do it
a single evening since she came home. Should

o o

she kiss him ? Why not ? Wasn't he her father ?
Yet he might not like it. She could not be sure.
He was not like the fathers she had known. How-
ever, she came back on tiptoe and stooped over
him, her voice low and sweet :

" Good-night, father ! I am going now." And
then she put a kiss on the rough cheek, just
where little Sate had left her velvet touch.

Mr. Decker started almost as though some-
body had struck him. But it was not anger
which filled his face.

" Good-night, my girl," he said, but his voice
was husky ; and Nettie ran as fast as she could
across the yard to the next house.

" I did not get the things," she said to Jerry,
who stood in the doorway waiting for her ; " I
couldn't ; but, Jerry, I had such a wonderful
time ! Father gave me money, and we went to
market, and bought shoes and he bought butter ;
and since we came home almost everything has
happened. I can't begin to tell you. I can get
some of the things on Monday. Father gave
me money."

142 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIB NETS.

" All right," said Jerry ; " I didn't get the
skeletons ready, either ; I meant to work after
tea, but instead of that I went fishing." And he
gave her a bright smile.

" Oh ! I know it," said Nettie, breathless
almost with eagerness. " That is part of my nice
time. Jerry, I am so glad you went fishing to-
night, and I am so glad you caught your fish ;
not the ones which we are to eat for our Sunday
breakfast, you know, but the other one. Do you
understand ? "

And Jerry laughed. " I understand," he said,
" I had a nice time, too. We shall have some
long stories to tell each other, I guess. We
must go in now."

CHAPTER Vin.

A SABBATH TO REMEMBER.

UNDAY was a successful day at the Deck-
ei*s. The sun shone brilliantly; a trifle too
warm, you might have thought it, for comfort ;
but the little Deckers did not notice it. The
fish was beautifully browned and the coffee was
delicious. Mr. Decker had a clean shirt which
his wife had contrived to wash and rnend, the
day before, and all things were harmonious.
Some time before nine o'clock. Sate and Susie
were arrayed in their new white suits, and with
their trim new shoes, and hair beautifully neat,
they were as pretty little girls as one need want
to see. Nettie surveyed them with unqualified
satisfaction, and then seated them, each with a
picture primer, while she made her own toilet.
She put on the dress which had been her best
for Sunday, all summer. It was a gingham, a
trifle finer and a good deal lighter than the brown
143

144 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

one in which she had travelled. It was neatly
made, and fitted her well ; and the brown hat
and ribbons looked well with it.

On the whole, when they set off for Sabbath-
school, Jerry accompanying them, arrayed in a
fresh brown linen suit, Mrs. Decker watching
them from the side window, admitted that she
never saw a nicer-looking set in her life ! She
even had the courage to call Mr. Decker to see
how nice the two little girls looked, and he came
and watched them out of sight. And when he
said that his Nan was about as nice a looking
girl as he wanted to see, she answered heartily
that Nannie was the very best girl she ever saw
in her life.

Fairly in the Sabbath-school, a fit of extreme
shyness came over the two little Deckers. With
Susie, as usual, it took the form of fierceness ;
she planted her two stout feet in the doorway
and resolutely shook her head to all coaxings to
go any farther; keeping firm hold of Sate's
hand, and giving her arm a jerk now and then,
to indicate to her that she was not to stir from
her protector's side. The situation was becom-
ing embarrassing. Nettie could not leave them,
and Jerry would not ; though some of the boys

A SABBATH TO REMEMBER. 145

were giggling, those of his class were motioning
him to leave the group and join them. The su-
perintendent came forward and cordially invited
the children in, but Susie scowled at him and
shook her head. Then Jerry went around to
Sate's side and held out his hand. " Sate," he
said in a winning tone, "come with me over
where all those pretty little girls sit, and I will
get you a picture paper with a bird on it."

To Susie's utter dismay, Sate who had meekly
obeyed her slightest whim during all her little
life, suddenly dropped the hand that held hers,
and gave the other to Jerry, with a firm : " I'm
going in, Susie ; we came to go in, and Nettie
wants us to." Poor, astonished, deserted Susie !

She had been so sure of Sate that she had neg-
lected to keep firm hold, and now she had slid
away. There was nothing left for Susie but to
follow her with what grace she could.

They were seated at last. Seven little girls
of nearly Nettie's size and age. As she took a
seat among them, I wish I could give you an
idea of how she felt. Up to this hour, it had
not occurred to her that she was not as well
dressed as others of her age. Not quite that,
either ; being a wise little woman of business, she

146 LITTLE FISHERS! AND THEIR NETS.

was well aware that her clothes were plain, and
cheap, and that some girls wore clothes which
cost a great deal of money. But I mean that
this was the first time she had taken in the
thought of the difference, so that it gave her a
sting. The Sabbath-school which she had been
attending, was a mission, in the lower part of
the city ; the scholars, nearly all of them, com-
ing from homes where there was not much to
spare on dress; and the girls of her class had
all of them dressed like herself, neatly and
plainly. It was very different with these seven
girls. She felt at once, as she seated herself, as
though she had come into the midst of a flower
garden where choice blossoms were glowing on
every side, and she might be a poor little weed.
Summer silk dresses, broad-brimmed hats aglow
with flowers, kid gloves, dainty lace-trimmed
parasols — what a beautiful world it was into
which this poor little weed had moved ?

Nettie knew that her hat was coarse, and the
ribbon narrow and cheap, and her gloves cotton,
but these things had never troubled her before.
Why should they now ?

The truth is, it was not the pretty things, but
the curious glances that their owners gave at the

A SABBATH TO EEMEMBEB. 147

small brown thrush which had come in among
them. They seemed to poo;- Nettie to be mak-
ing a memoranda of everything she had on,
from the narrow blue ribbon on her hair to the
strong neat boots in which her plump feet were
encased. The look in their eyes said, " How
queerly she is dressed ! " It was impossible to
get away from the thought of their thoughts,
and from the fact that the girl next to her drew
her blue silk dress closer about her, and placed
her pink-lined parasol on the other side, even
though the pretty lady who sat before them in
the teacher's seat, welcomed her kindly, and
hoped she would be happy among them. Nettie
hoped so, too ; but she could hardly believe that
it could be possible.

She looked over at Jerry. He seemed to be
having a good time ; there was not so much dif-
ference in boys' clothes as in girls. She did not
see but he looked as well as any of them. She
looked forward at the little girls. Susie had
allowed herself to be led in search of Sate, and
the two were at this moment side by side in a
seat full of bobbing heads ; they had taken off
their sunbonnets, and their pretty heads bobbed
about with the rest, and the white dresses of the

148 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

two looked as well at a distance as the others,
though Nettie could see that there were ruffles,
and tucks, and embroidery and lace. But some
were plain ; and none of the wee ones seemed to
notice or to care. It was only Nettie who had
gotten among those who made her care, by the
glance of their eyes, and the rustle of their
finery. She tried to get away from it all ; tried
hard. She listened to the words read, and
joined as .well as she could, in the hymn sung,
and answei-ed quietly and correctly, the ques-
tions put to her; but all the while there was a
queer lump in her throat, which kept her swal-
lowing, and swallowing, and a wish in her heart
that she could go back to Auntie Marshall's.

When the service was over, she stood waiting,
feeling shy and alone. Jerry was talking with
the boys in his class, and the little girls were
being kissed by their pretty teacher. Her class-
mates stood and looked at her. At last the
teacher who had been talking with one of the
secretaries turned to her with a pleasant voice :

"Well, Nettie, we are glad to have you with
us. Can you come every Sabbath, do you think?
Are you acquainted with these girls? No?
Then you must be introduced. This is Irene

LOIJKNA BAB8TOW.

A SABBATH TO REMEMBER. 149

Lewis, and this is Cecelia Lester," and in this
\\iiy she named the seven girls, each one making
iu turn what seemed to poor Nettie the stiffest
little bow she had ever seen. At last, Irene
Lewis, who stood next to her, and wore an ele-
gant fawn-colored silk dress trimmed with lace,
tried to think of something to say.

"You haven't begun school yet, have you ?
I haven't seen anything of you. What grade
are you in ? "

Nettie explained that she had not been in a
regular school; that she went afternoons to a
private school which had no grades, and that
now she did not expect to go at all ; because
mother could not spare her.

"A private school!" said Miss Irene, "and
held only in the afternoon ! What a queer
idea ! I should think morning was the time to
study. What was it for?"

Then it became necessary to further explain
that the girls who attended this afternoon school,
had all of them work to do in the mornings, and
could not be spared.

" I have heard of them," said Lorena Bar-
stow. "They are sort of charity schools, are
they not?"

150 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIE NETS.

Lorcna was dressed in white, and looked al-
most weighed down with rich embroidery; but
she had a disagreeable smile on her face, and a
look in her eyes that made Nettie's face crim-
son.

"I don't know," she said, quietly, "I never
heard it called by that name. My auntie thought
very well of it, and was glad to have me go."
Then she turned away, and hoped that none of
the girls would ask her any more questions, or
try to be friendly with her. Just now, she
could be glad of only one thing, and that was,
that she need not go to school with these dis-
agreeable people. She stepped quite out of
sight behind the screen which shielded the next
class, and waited impatiently for the little girls.
They seemed to be having a very nice time, and
were in no haste to come to her. Standing
there, waiting, she had the pleasure of hearing
herself talked about.

" Isn't she a queer little object?" said Lorena
Barstow. And when one of the others was kind
enough to say that she did not see anything very
queer about her, Lorena proceeded to explain.

" You don't ! "Well, I should think yon might.
Did you ever see a girl in our class before, with

A SABBATH TO EEME1I11ER. 151

a gingham dress on? Of course she wore her
very best for the first Sunday; and her hat i8
of very coarse straw, just the commonest kind,
and last year's shape at that ; then look at her
cotton gloves ! I'm sure I think she is as funny
a little object as ever came into this room."

"What of it? I am sure she looks neat and
clean, and she spoke very prettily, and knew her
lesson better than any of us."

" I didn't say she didn't. I was only talking
about her clothes."

"Clothes are not of much consequence."

"O Miss Ermina! When you dress better
than any of us. Why don't you wear gingham
dresses, and cheap ribbons, and cotton gloves, if
you think they look as well as nice ones?"

" I did not say that ; I wear the clothes my
mother gets for me; but I truly don't think,
they are the most important things in the
world."

"Neither do I. You needn't take a person
up in that way, as though you were better than
anybody else. I am sure I am willing she should
wear what she likes."

Then Cecelia Lester took up the conversation:

"She could not be expected to dress very

152 LITTLE FISHERS I AND THEIE NETS.

well, of course. Don't you know she is old
Joe Decker's daughter?"

" Who is Joe Decker ? I never heard of
him."

" Well, he is just a drunkard ; they live over
on Hamlin street. Mrs. Decker washes for my
auntie once in awhile, when they have extra
company, and I have seen her there, with both
the little girls. I heard that Joe's daughter
who has been living out, for years, was coming
home."

" Living out ! that little thing ! No wonder
she hasn't better clothes. She has a pretty face,
I think. But it seems sort of queer to have her
come into our class, doesn't it? We sha'n't know
what to do with her ! She can't go in our set,
of course."

" O, I don't know. Perhaps Ermina Farley
will invite her to her party." At this point, all
the others laughed, as though a funny thing had
been said, but Ermiiia spoke quietly : " So far
as her gingham dress is concerned, I am sure I
would just as soon. I don't choose my friends
on account of the clothes they wear; and I sup-
pose the poor thing cannot help her father being
a drunkard ; but then, I shouldn't like to invite

A SABBATH TO REMEMBER. 153

her, for fear you girls would not treat her well."

Xettie could see the toss of Lorena Barstow's
yellow curls as she answered : "Well, I must say
I like to be cai'eful with whom I associate ; and
mother likes toliave me careful. I am sorry for
the girl ; but I don't know that I need make her
my most intimate friend on that account. Say,
girls, did you ever notice what fine eyes that
boy has who came in with her ? Some think he
is a real handsome fellow."

" He seems to be a particular friend of this
girl ; I saw them on the street together yester-
day, and they were talking and laughing, as
though they enjoyed each other ever so much.
Who is that boy?"

Lorena seemed to be prepared to answer all
questions.

" He isn't much," she said, with another toss
of her yellow curls. " His name is Jerry Mack ;
a regular Irish name, and he is Irish in face ; I
think he is coarse-looking ; dreadful red cheeks !
'The girls over on the West Side say he is smart,
and handsome, and all that. I don't see where
they find it."

"O, he is smart," said Cecelia Lester. " My
brother knows him, and he says there isn't a

154 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

more intelligent boy in town. I used to think
he was splendid ; I have talked with him some,
and he is real pleasant; but I must say I don't
understand why he goes with that Decker girl
all the time."

"I don't see why he shouldn't," declared
Lorena. "For my part, I think they are well
matched ; he works for his board at Job Smith's
the carman's, and she is a drunkard's daughter ;
they ought to be able to have nice times to-
gether."

" Does he work for his board ? " chimed in
two or three voices at once.

" Why, I suppose so, or gets it without work-
ing for it. He lives there, anyway. They say his
father has deserted him, run away to California,
or somewhere ; Jerry will have to learn the car-
man's trade, and support himself, and Nettie,
too, maybe." Whereupon there was a chorus
of giggles. Something about this seemed to be
thought funny.

Ermina seemed to have left the group, so
they took her up next. " Ermina Farley meant
to invite him to her party, but I hardly think
she will, when she finds out how all we girls
feel about it. She tries to do things different

A SABBATH TO REMEMBER. 155

from everybody else, though ; so perhaps that
will be the very reason why she will ask them
both. I'll tell you what it is, girls, we must
stand up for our rights, and not let her have
everything her own way. Let's say squarely
that we will not go to her party if she invites
out of our set. I could endure the boy if I had
to, because he is very polite, and merry ; and so
few of the boys around here know how to be-
have themselves; but if he has chosen that
Decker girl for his friend, we must just let them
both alone. This class isn't the place for that
girl; I wonder who invited her in? I think it
was real mean in Miss Wheeler to ask her to
come again, without knowing how we felt about
it."

All this time was poor Nettie behind that
screen. Not daring to stir, because there was no
place for her to go. The little girls were still en-
gaged with their teacher, who had Sate on her
lap, and Susie by her side, and was showing
them some picture cards, and apparently telling
them a story about the pictures. Jerry had sat
down beside a boy who was copying something
which Jerry seejned to be reading to him, and
various groups stood about, chatting. They

156 LITTLE PISHEES : AND THE1E NETS.

were waiting for the bell to toll before they went
into church. Nettie could not go without the
little girls, and she could not stir without being
brought into full view. And just then she felt
as though it would not be possible for her to
meet the eyes of anybody. If only she could
run away and hide, where she need never see
any of those dreadful girls again ! or, for that
matter, see anybody. It was true, she was 'a
drunkard's daughter, and would go down lower
and lower, until her neat dress would be in rags,
and her hat, coarse as it was, would grow frayed,
and be many years behind the fashion. What
a cruel, wicked world it was ! Who could have
imagined that those pretty, beautifully dressed
girls could have such cruel tongues, and say such
hateful words! Didn't they know she was
within hearing? Couldn't they have waited
until she got out of the way, so that she need
not have known how dreadful they were ?

So far as that was concerned, they did not
know it. To do them justice, I think none of
them would have wounded her so, quite to her
face. They might have been cold, but they
would not have been cruel in her presence. They
thought she went out of the room, instead of be-

A SABBATH TO REMEMBER. 157

hind the screen. The bell tolled, at last, and
Jerry finished his reading, and came over to her,
his face bright. The girls in their beautiful
plumage fluttered away like gay birds, the
teacher of the little girls came toward her hold-
ing a hand of each, and saying brightly : "Are
these your little sisters ? What dear little treas-
ures they are! We have had such a pleasant
time together. I hope you have enjoyed your
first day at Sabbath- school?"

" Thank you, ma'am," said Nettie. She was
in great doubt as to whether this was a correct
answer, for the sentence had the tone of a ques-
tion in it, but truthful Nettie could not say that
she enjoyed it very much, and did not want to
say that she had never had a more miserable
time in her life.

Jerry was harder to answer. " Was it nice ?"
he asked her, as soon as they were fairly outside.
" Did you have a good time ? Those girls looked
a trifle like peacocks, didn't they? I thought
you were the best dressed one among them."

O, ignorant boy! If there hadn't been such
a lump in Nettie's throat, she would have laughed
at this bit of folly. As it was, she contrived to
give him a very little shadow of a smile, and was

158 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIE NETS.

glad that the church door was near at hand, and
that there was no more time for closer questions.
All through the morning service she was try-
ing to forget. It was not easy to do, for
there sat three of the girls in a seat on which
she could look down all the time; and try as
she would, it seemed impossible to keep eyes
or thoughts from turning that way. The girls
did not behave very well. They whispered
a good deal, during the Bible reading, and
giggled over a book that fell while the hymn
was being sung; and though Nettie covered her
eyes during prayer, she could not help hearing a
soft little buzz of whispering voices, even then.
Jerry looked straight before him, with bright,
untroubled face, and seemed to be having a good
time. Susie and Sate, who had never been in
church before in their lives, behaved remarkably
well. In the course of the morning Sate leaned
her little brown head trustingly against Nettie
and dropped asleep, and Nettie put her arm
around her, arranged her pretty head comfort-
ably, and looked lovingly down upon her, and
was glad that she had a little sister to love.
Two of them, indeed, for Susie sat bolt upright
and looked straight before her, and took in every.

A SABBATH TO REMEMBER. 159

thing with wide-open eyes, and looked so hand-
some with her glowing cheeks and her lovely
curls, that it was almost impossible not to feel
proud of the womanly little face.

Nettie contrived to keep herself occupied with
the prattle of the children during the walk
home. She was not yet ready for Jerry's ques-
tions. She did not know what to say. Of one
thing she felt sure ; that was, that she never
meant to go to that Sabbath-school again.

Dinner was nearly ready when they reached
home ; such an appetizing smell of soup as had
never filled the Decker kitchen before. Mrs.
Decker had followed the directions of her young
daughter with great care ; and presently a very
comfortable family sat down to the table. There
were no soup plates, but there were two bowls
for the father and mother, and a deep saucer for
Norm ; and the little girls were made happy
with tin cups, two of which Nettie had found
and scoured, the day before. It was certainly a
very pleasant time. After dinner, as Nettie was
preparing to wash the dishes, her mother came
out with a troubled face, and whispered :

u Norm says he guesses he will go out for a
walk ; and I know what that means ; he gets

160 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

with a mean set every Sunday, and they carouse
dreadful ; it is the worst day in the week for
boys. I was thinking, what if you could get
that boy next door to go a-fishing again ; Norm
enjoyed it last night first-rate ; and he said that
boy was as jolly company as he should ever
want. If he could keep him away from that
set, he would be doing a good deed."

"But, mother," she said, "it is Sunday."

"Yes," said Mrs. Decker, "that's just what
I've been saying; Sunday is the day when he
gets into the worst kind of scrapes. Do you
think Jerry would help us ?"

" I know he would if he could ; but he could
not go fishing on Sunday, you know."

"Why not? I should think it was enough
eight better than for Norm to go off with a set
of loafers, who do all sorts of wicked things."

Poor Nettie was not skilled in argument ; she
did not know how to explain to her mother that
Jerry must not do one wrong thing, to keep
Norm from doing another wrong thing, even
though the thing he chose might be the worse of
the two. There was only a simple statement
which she could make. " This is God's day,
mother, and he says we must not do our own

A SABBATH TO REMEMBER. 161

work, or our own pleasure on his day ; and I
know Jerry will try to obey him, because he is
his soldier."

Mrs. Decker looked at the red-cheeked young
girl a moment, then drew a long sigh.

" Well," she said, " I know that is the way
good folks talk ; I used to hear plenty of it when
I was young ; and I was brought up to keep the
Sabbath as strict as anybody ; I would do it now
if I could ; but I'm free to confess that I would
rather have Norm go a-fishing, ten times over,
than to go with those fellows and get drunk."

" Yes'm," said Nettie, respectfully. " But
then, God says we must obey him ; and he has
told us just how to keep the Sabbath day.
He couldn't help us to do things for other peo-
ple, if we begin by disobeying Him."

Mrs. Decker went away, the trouble still on
her face, and Nettie began to wash the dishes.
Suddenly, she dropped her dish towel and rushed
after Norman as he lounged out of the door.

"Norman," she called, just as he was moving
down the street, " won't you take the little girls
and me over to that green place, that I see, the
other side of the pond ? There is such a pretty
tree there, and it looks so pleasant on the bank.

162 LITTLE FISHKBS: AND THEIB NETS.

I have some story papers that I promised to
read to the little girls, and that would be such a
nice place for reading. Won't you?"

Norm stopped and looked down at her in
astonishment, and some embarrassment. " You
can go over there without me," he said, at
last; "it isn't such a dreadful ways off; there's
a plank across the stream down there a ways,
where it is narrow. Lots of girls go there."

Nettie looked over at it timidly. She was
honestly afraid of the water, and nothing short
of keeping Norm out of harm's way would have
tempted her to cross a plank, with the little
girls for companions. She spoke in genuine
timidity.

" I wouldn't like to go over there alone, with
just the children. I am not used to going about
alone. Couldn't you go with us, for just a little
while? It will seem so nice to have a big
brother to take care of me."

Something about it all seemed suddenly rather
nice to Norm. He had never been asked to
take care of anybody before. He stood irreso-
lutely for a moment, then said lazily, " Well, I
don't know as I care ; bring on your babies,
then, and we'll go."

A SABBATH TO REMEMBER. 163

Nettie sped back to the kitchen, dashed after
the little girls and their sunbonnets, saying to
Mrs. Decker as she went : " Mother, would you
mind finishing the dishes? Norman is going to.
take the little girls and me over to the big tree,
and we are going to stay there awhile, and read."

" I'll finish ,'em," said Mrs. Decker, comfort in
her tone, and she murmured, as she watched
them away, Sate with her hand slipped inside of
Norm's, " I declare, I never see the beat of that
girl in all my life."

CHAPTER IX.

A BARGAIN AND A PROMISE.

TIRING the next few days work went on
rapidly in the Decker home : or, moi-e
properly speaking, in the room over Job Smith's
barn. Jerry developed such taste in the man-
ufacture of furniture, or of " skeletons," that
Nettie grew alarmed lest there should never
be found clothing enough to cover them. How-
ever, matters in that respect began to look
brighter. Mrs. Job Smith, as she grew into an
understanding of the plan, dragged out certain
old trunks from her woodhouse chamber and
looked them over. There were treasures in
those trunks, which even Mrs* Job herself had
forgotten. A gay chintz dress of Job's mother's,
which had been saved by her daughter-in-law
" she couldn't rightly tell for what, only Job
set store by it because it was his old mother's."
Nettie fairly clapped her hands in delight over
164

A BARGAIN AND A PROMISE. 165

it, and then blushed crimson when she remem-
bered it was not hers.

"Well, now," said Mrs. Job, "I'll just tell
you what it is. If you see anything in life to do
with these rolls of things, here is a bundle of old
muslin curtains, embroidered, you know, and
dreadful pretty once, I suppose, but they are all
to pieces now. Mrs. Percival, a lady I used to
clear starch and iron for, gave them to me ; paid
me in that kind of trash, you know, though
what in the world she thought I could ever do
with them is more than I could imagine. But
I was younger then than I am now, and waa
kind of meek, and I lugged home the great roll
and said nothing ; only I remember when I got
home I just sat down on a corner of the table
and cried, I was so disappointed. I had expected
to be paid in money, and I had planned two or
three things to surprise Job, and they had to be
given up. Well, as I was saying," she added,
in a brisker tone, having roused from her little
dream of the past to watch Nettie's fingers lin-
ger lovingly and wistfully among the rolls of
soft muslin, "they have never been the least
mite of good to me. I have just kept them be-
cause it didn't seem quite the thing to throw

166 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIK NETS. ,

such pretty soft stuff into the rag-bag, and they
were dreadful poor trash to give away ; and
Sarah Jane, she is tired of having them in the
attic taking up room, and if there is anything in
life can be done with these things in this trunk,
I wish you would just go shares, and make some
things for me too. Sarah Jane would like it,
first-rate."

This sentence fairly made Nettie catch her
breath. The treasures in that trunk were so
wonderful to her. " I could make such lovely
things!" she said, almost gasping out the
words; "but, O Mrs. Smith, you can't mean it!
I'm afraid I oughtn't to."

" Why, bless your heart, child, I tell you I
don't know of a single useful thing in that
trunk ; not one ; it is just a pack of rubbish,
now, that's the truth; and if Sarah Jane has
begged me once to let her sell it to the rag ped-
lers, I believe she has twenty times."

The bare thought of such a sacrifice as this
almost made Nettie pale. Also it settled her
resolution and her conscience. She reached for-
ward and plunged into the delights of the de-
spised trunk with a satisfied air. " I will make
you some of the prettiest things you ever saw

A BARGAIN AND A PROMISE. 167

in your life," she said, with the air of one who
knew she could do it. And Mrs. Smith laughed,
and watched her with admiring eyes, and told
Sarah Jane that she believed the child could do
some things that other folks couldn't.

It was after the day's work was done, and the
little girls were asleep, and Nettie sat in the
back door waiting for father and Norm, and
wishing that they had not gone down town
again, that she had a chance to say the few little
words which she had made up her mind to say
to Jerry. While her hands had been busy over
long seams of rag carpeting, and over the won-
derful trunk full of treasures, her thoughts had,
much of the time, been busy with other matters.
Yesterday at noon she had been sure that she
should never go to that Sabbath-school again.
By night, after the quiet talk under the trees
with Norm and the little girls, she had not been
so sure of it. The little girls could not go with-
out her, and they had learned sweet lessons that
very day, which had filled their young heads
full of wondering thoughts, and they had asked
questions which had at least amused NWm, and
which might set him to thinking. In any case,
ought she, because she had not been happy in

168 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIE NETS.

her class, to deprive the little girls of the help
which the Sabbath-school might be to them?
Then how badly it would look to Norm, and to
her mother, if she went no more. And what
would Jerry think ? On the whole, the longer
she thought about it, the more she felt- inclined
to believe that her decision might have been a
hasty one, and it was her duty to continue in
that Sabbath-school, and even in that class, at
least until the superintendent placed her in some
other. It was a good deal of a trial to her to
decide the question in this way, but she could
not make any other seem right.

There had also been another question to de-
cide, which had been harder, and cost her more
tears than the other. She was a very lonely lit-
tle girl, and it seemed hard to give up a friend.
But this, too, seemed to be the only right thing
to do, so she made it known to Jerry in the
moonlight.

" Do you know, Jerry, I have been thinking
all day of something that I ought to say to you ?"

" All right," said Jerry, whittling away at the
stick which he was fashioning into a proper shape
to do duty as a towel rack for Mrs. Job Smith's
kitchen towel. " Go ahead, this is a good time

A BARGAIN AND A PBOMISE. 169

to say it." And he held the stick up and took a
scientific squint at it in the moonlight. " This
thing would work better if the wood were a lit-
tle softer. I am going to make one for your
mother if it is a success, and it will be. Now
what is your news? "

" It isn't news," said Nettie, " it is only some-
thing that I have made up my mind I ought to
say. Jerry, I think, that is, I don't think, I
mean" — And there she stopped.

"Just so," said Jerry, nodding his head
gravely, " that is plain, I am sure, and interest-
ing; I agree with you entirely." After that,
both of them had to laugh a little, and the story
did not get on.

" But I truly mean it," Nettie said at last, her
face growing grave again, " and I ought to say
it. What I want to tell you is, that I have
made up my mind that you and I must not be
friends any more."

Jerry did not laugh now, he did not even
whistle. His knife suddenly stopped, and he
squared around to get a full view of her face.

" What ! " he said at last, as though he did
not think it possible that he could have under-
stood her.

170 LITTLE FISHEBS : AND THEIR NETS.

"Yes," she said firmly, "I mean it, Jerry, and
it is real hard to say; you and I ought not to be
friends, or, I mean we must not let folks know
that we are friends. We mustn't take walks to-
gether, nor work together. I don't mean that I
shall not like you all the same ; but we mustn't
have anything to do with each other."

"Why not, pray? Have I done anything to
make you ashamed of me ? I'll try to behave
myself, I'm sure."

This was so ridiculous that Nettie could not
help smiling a little.

" O, Jerry ! " she said, " you know better than
to talk in that way. It sounds strange, I know,
and it is real hard to do, but I am sure it is
right, and we must do it."

" But what in the world is the trouble ? Can't
you give a fellow a reason for things? Is it
your brother who doesn't like it ? "

" O no ! Norm likes you ; and mother is as
much obliged to you as she can be, for getting
him to go a-fishing. But, you see, it is bad for
you to be my friend."

" Oh-ho ! I don't believe your influence is
very hard on me; I don't feel as though you
had led me very far astray ! "

A BARGAIN AND A PROMISE. 171

"It isn't fun, Jerry, it is sober earnest. I
have heard things said that set me to thinking.
I overheard the girls talk! those girls in the
class, you know, yesterday. I guess they did
not know I was there. They talked about me a
good deal. They said I had a last year's hat on,
and that is true, and my dress was only gingham,
and washed at that."

"Washed!" interrupted Jerry in bewilder-
ment ; " well, what of that ? Would they have
had you wear it dirty ? "

But Nettie hastened on; she did not feel
equal to explaining to him the subtle distinction
between a brand-new dress and one that had
been " done up."

" They said a good deal more than that,
Jerry, and it was all true. They said I was
nothing but a drunkard's daughter," and here

o o *

Nettie found it hard work to control the sob in
her throat.

" That is not true," said Jerry, indignantly.
"Your father has not drank a drop in three
days."

" Oh ! but, Jerry, you know he does drink ;
and he has gone down town to-night, and mother
is sure that he will not come home sober. It is

172 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

all true, Jerry. I don't mean that I am going
to give up. I shall try for father all the time ;
and I think maybe he will reform, after a while.
And I won't forget our promise, and I know
you won't ; but it is best for us not to act like
friends. They talked about you, too ; they said
you were handsome, and they used to like you ;
they thought you were smart. But now you
had begun to go with me, so you couldn't be
much. One of them said you were an Irish
boy, that you had a real Irish name. Are you
Irish, Jerry?"

" Not much! Or, hold on, I don't know but
I am. Why, yes, my great-grandmother came
from the North of Ireland. Father is proud of
it, I remember."

"Well, I don't care where you came from,
you know. Nor whether you are Irish, or Dutch,
or what ; I am only telling you what they said.
They told how you worked at Job Smith's for
your board ; and one of them said your father
had run away and left you."

"Well, he has; run three thousand miles
away, and left me, as sure as time. But he
means to run back again, when' he gets ready."

" I knew that wasn't true, Jerry ; and I only

A BARGAIN AND A PROMISE. 173

tell you because I thought you might want to
speak about your father in a way that would
show them it wasn't so. But what I want to
say is, that I know they will get all over those
feelings when they come to know you ; and they
will like you, and invite you to places, if you
don't go with me ; but they won't any of them
have anything to do with me, on account of my
father. And, Jerry, I want you not to go with
me, or talk with me any more."

"Just so," said Jerry, in an unconcerned
voice. " Do you think I am making this stick
too long for the frame ? Our kitchen towels are
pretty wide. Well, now, see here, Miss Nettie
Decker, you would not make a very honest busi-
ness woman if you went back on a square bar-
gain in that fashion. You and I settled it to be
partners in a very important business ; and part-
ners can't get along very well without speaking
to each other. There is no use in talking. You
are several days too late. The mischief is done.
I'm your friend and fellow-laborer and partner
in the cabinet business, and the upholstery line,
and all the other lines. You will find me the
hardest fellow to get rid of that ever was. I
don't shake off worth a cent. I shall take walks

174 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIE NETS.

with you every chance I can get ; and shout to
you from the woodshed window when you are
over home, and wait for you to come out wrhen
I think it is about time you should appear, and
be on hand in all imaginable places. Now I
hope you understand what sort of a fellow I
am."

If the boy had looked in Nettie's face just
then, he would have seen a sudden light flash
over it which carried away a good deal of the
look of patient endurance which it had worn for
the last few hours. Still her voice was full of
earnestness.

"But, Jerry, they will not have anything to
do with you if you act so. By and by they will
not even speak to you. And they won't invite
you to their parties, nor anywhere. There is
going to be a party next week, and I think you
would have been invited if you hadn't gone with
me Sunday; now I am afraid you won't be."

And now Jerry whistled a few rollicking
notes.

" All right," he said in a cheery tone. " If
there is any one thing more than another that I
don't like to go to, it is a girls' party where they
make believe act like silly, grown-up men and

A BARGAIN AXD A PROMISE. 176

women. I know just about what kind of a party
those girls in that class would get up. If you
have been the means of saving me from an invi-
tation, it is just another thing to thank you for.
Look here, Nettie, let us make another bargain,
sober earnest, not to be broken. I don't care a
red cent for the girls, nor their invitations, nor
their bows ; I would just as soon they did not
know me when they met me as not. If that is
their game, I shall like nothing better than to
meet them half-way; girls who would know
no better than to talk the way they did about you,
are not to my liking. If because you wear clothes
that are neat and nice and the best you can afford,
and because I am an Irish boy and work for my
board, are good reasons for not having any thing
to do with us, why, we will return the favor
and not have anything to do with them, for bet-
ter reasons than they have shown. Let's drop
them. I thought some of them would be good
friends to you, maybe, and help you to have a
nice time ; but they are not of the right sort, it
seems. You and I will have just as good times
as we can get up. And we will bow to them if
they bow to us ; if they don't we will let them
pass. What is settled is, that we are bound

176 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

to work out this thing together. Understand ? "

"Yes," said Nettie, with a little soft laugh,
" I understand, and I don't believe I ought to
let you do it. But you don't know how nice it
is ; and I can't tell you how lonesome I felt when
I thought I ought not to talk with you any
more."

" I should like to see you help yourself," said
Jerry, in a complacent tone. " You would find
it the hardest work you ever did in your life not
to talk to me, when I should keep up a regular
fire of questions of all sorts and sizes."

Then Nettie laughed outright, but added,
after a moment of silence, " But, Jerry, I think
the worst of it is about father ; and that is true,
you know. They might not think so much about
the clothes, if it were not for him."

" That has nothing to do with it," said Jerry
sturdily. " You are not to blame for your fath-
er's drinking liquor. Wouldn't you stop it
quick enough if you could ? It is only another
reason why they ought to be friends to you. Be-
sides, there wouldn't be so much of the stuff for
folks to drink, if Lorena Barstow's father did
not make it."

«'O Jerry! does he?"

A BARGAIN AND A PROMISE. 177

" Yes, he does. Owns one of the largest dis-
tilleries in the country."

"Jerry, I think I would rather have my
father drink liquor than make it for other folks.
At least he doesn't make money out of other
people's troubles."

" So would I, enough sight," said Jerry with
emphasis. Then he lifted up his voice in an-
swer to Mrs. Job Smith who appeared in the ad-
joining door. "All right, auntie, we are com-
ing." And he carefully gathered the chips he
had whittled, into his handkerchief, and rose up.

" Going over now, Nettie ? I guess auntie
thinks it is time to lock up."

Nettie darted within for a few minutes,'then
appeared, and they crossed the yard together.
As they stepped on the lower step of Mrs.
Smith's porch, Jerry said : " Remember this is
a bargain forever and aye, Nettie ; there is to
be no backing out, and no caring for what folks
say, or for what happens, either now or after-
wards. Do you promise ? "

" I promise," said Nettie with a smile. And
they went into the clean kitchen.

Before Jerry went to bed that night he took
out of the fly leaf of his Bible the picture of

178 LITTLE FISHEKS : AND THEIR NETS.

a tall man, and kissed it, as he said aloud :
" So you have run away and left your poor lit-
tle Irish boy, have you? But when you run
back again, won't they all be glad to see you,
though ! "

CHAPTER X.

PLEASURE AND DISAPPOINTMENT.

r MHE day came at last when the front room
at the Deckers was put in order. I don't
suppose you have any idea how pretty that room
looked when the last tack was driven, and the
last fold in the curtain twitched into place !
The rag carpet was very bright. " I put a good
many red and yellows in it," said Mrs. Smith,
"and now I know why I did it. It js just
bright enough for this room. I don't see how
you two could have got it down as firm as you
have."

" Nettie managed it," said Mrs. Decker, "she
is a master hand at putting down carpets."

The furniture was done and in place, and cer-
tainly did justice to the manufacturers. There
were two "sofas" with backs which were so
nicely padded that they were very comfortable
things to lean against, and the gay-flowered
179

180 LITTLE FISHERS ! AND THEIE NETS.

goods that had looked "so horrid" in a dress
that Mrs. Smith could never bring herself to
wear it, proved to be just the thing for a sofa-
cover. Between the windows was a very mar-
vel of a table. Nobody certainly to look at it,
draped in the whitest of muslin, with a pink
cambric band around its waist, covered with
the muslin, and looking as much like pink rib-
bon as possible, would have imagined that a
square post, about six inches in diameter, and
two feet long, with a barrel head securely nailed
to each end, was the "skeleton" out of which
all this prettiness was evolved. "And mine is
as like it as two peas," said Mrs. Smith,
"only mine is tied with blue ribbon. Who
would have thought such things could be made
out of what they had to work with ! I declare
them two young things beat all ! " This time
she meant Nettie and Jerry, not the two tables.
The curtains for which, after much considera-
tion, cheap unbleached muslin had been chosen,
when their pinkish lambrequins of the same gay-
flowered goods as the sofas, had been cut and
scalloped, and put in place, were almost pretty
enough to justify the extravagant admiration
which they called forth. But the crowning

PLEA8UKE AND DISAPPOINTMENT. 181

glory was, after all, a chair which occupied the
broad space between the window and the door.
It was cushioned, back, and sides, and arms ; it
was dressed in a robe which had belonged to
Job Smith's grandmother. It was delightful to
look at, and delightful to sit in. Mrs.. Decker
declared that the first time she sat down in it,
she felt more rested than she had in three years.

Those two barrel chairs were triumphs of art.
Jerry had been a week over the first one, plan-
ning, trying, failing, trying again ; Nettie had
seen one once, in the room of a house where she
used to go sometimes to carry flowers to a sick
woman. She had admired it very much, and
the lady herself had told her how it was made,
and that her nephew, a boy of sixteen, made it
for her. Now, although Jerry was not a boy of
sixteen, he had no idea there lived one of that
age who could accomplish anything which he
could not ; so he persevered, and I must say his
success was complete. Mrs. Smith believed there
never was such a wonderful chair made, before.

Jerry who had been missing for the last half-
hour, now appeared, and with long strides
reached the nice little mantel and set thereon a
lamp, not very large, but new and bright.

182 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

" That belongs to the firm," he said, in answer
to Nettie's look. " I saw a lamp the other day
that I knew would just fit nicely on that mantel,
and I couldn't rest until I had tried it."

Nettie's cheeks were red. She glanced over
at her mother to see how she would like this.
Nettie did not know whether a poor boy's
money ought to be taken to provide a lamp for
the new room ; she much doubted the propriety
of it. " The first money I earn, or father gives
me, I can pay him back," she thought, then gave
herself up to the enjoyment of her new treasure.

None of them had planned to give a recep-
tion that evening, yet I do not know but such
an unusual state of things as was found at the
Deckers about eight o'clock, is worthy of so
dignified a name. Mr. Decker and Norm came
in to supper together, and both a little late.
Nettie had trembled over what kept them, and
her heart gave a great bound of relief and
thanksgiving, when they appeared at last, none
the worse for liquor. Indeed, she did not think
either of them had taken even a glass of beer.
They were in good humor ; a bit of what Mr.
Decker called " extra good luck " had fallen to
him in the shape of a piece of work which it

PLEASURE AND DISAPPOINTMENT. 183

was found he could manage better than any
other hand in the shop, and for which extra
wages were to be paid. And Norm had been
told that he was quite a success in a certain line
of work. " He kept me after hours to give the
new boy a lift," said Norm, good-naturedly;
u he said I knew how to do the work, and how
to tell others better than the other fellows."

It was a good time for Mrs. Decker to tell
what had been going on in the square room, or
rather to hint at it, and tell them when supper
was over, they should go in and see. " Nannie
and I haven't been folding our hands while you
have been working," she said with a complacent
air, and a smile for Nettie as warmed that little
girl's heart, making her feel it would not be a
hard thing to love this new mother a great deal.

So after supper they went in. I suppose you
can hardly understand or imagine their sur-
prise ; because, you see, you have been used all
your life to nicely arranged rooms. For Mr.
Becker it stirred old memories. There had
been a time when his best room if not so fine as
this, was neat and clean, with many comforts in
it. "Well, I never," he began, and then his
voice choked, and he stopped.

184 LITTLE FISHEES: AND THEIR NETS.

However, Norm could talk, and expressed his
surprise and pleasure in eager words. " Where
did you get the table, and the gimcracks around
that chair ? Is that a chair, or a sofa, or what ?
Halloo! here's a new lamp. Let's have it
lighted and see how it works. I tell you what
it is, Nannie Decker, I guess you're a brick and
no mistake."

Then father was coaxed to sit down in the
barrel chair, and try its strength and its soft-
ness, and guess what it was made of. And the
little girls stood at his knee and put in eager
words as to the effect that they helped, and
altogether, there was such a time as that family
had not known before.

Just as Nettie was explaining that it was
dark enough to try the lamp, and Norm went
for a match, Mrs. Smith made her way across
the yard, and who should march solemnly be-
hind her but Job Smith himself !

" Come right along," said Mrs. Decker heart-
ily, as the new lamp threw a silvery light across
the room. " Come and try the new sofa. Here,
Mr. Smith, is a chair for you, if that is too low.
Decker, he's got the seat of honor ; Nettie said
her pa must have the first chance in it."

PLEASURE AND DISAPPOINTMENT. 185

The name "Nettie" seemed to slip naturally
from Mrs. Decker's tongue; she had heard
Jerry use it so often during the past few days,
that it was beginning to seem like the proper
name of that young woman. Mr. Smith sat
down, slowly, solemnly, in much doubt what to
do or say next.

"Well, Neighbor Decker, these young folks
of ours are busy people, ain't they, and seem to
be getting the upper hand of us?" Then he
laughed, a slow, pleasant laugh. Mrs. Smith
laughed a round, admiring satisfied laugh; she
was very proud of Job for saying that. Then
they fell into conversation, the two men, about
the signs of the times as regarded business, and
prices, and various interests. Mr. Decker was
a good talker, and here lay some of his tempta-
tions ; there was always somebody in the saloons
to talk with ; there was never anybody in his
home. Jerry came, presently, to admire the
room and the lamp, and to have a little aside
talk with Nettie. Norm was trying one of the
lounges near them.

" How did you make this thing ? " he asked
Jerry, and Jerry explained, and Norm listened
and asked a question now and then, until pres-

186 LITTLE FISHERS AND THKIB NETS.

ently he said, " I know a thing that would im-
prove it; the next time you make one, try it
and see."

" What is that ?" asked Jerry.

" Why, look here, in this corner where you
put the crossbar, if you should take a narrower
piece, so, and fit it in here so," and the sofa was
unceremoniously turned upside down and inside
out, and planned over, Jerry in his turn becom-
ing listener until at last he said : " I understand ;
I mean to fix this one, some day."

*

Nettie nodded, her eyes bright; it was not
about the sofa that they shone ; it gave her such
intense pleasure as perhaps you cannot under-
stand, to see her father sitting beside Mr.
Smith, talking eagerly, and her mother and Mrs.
Smith having a good time together, and Jerry
and Norm interested in each other. " It is ex-
actly like other folks ! " she said to Jerry, later,
"and I don't believe either father or Norm will
go down street to-night." And they didn't.

It was a very happy girl who went over to
Mrs. Smith's woodhouse chamber to sleep that
night. She sang softly, while she was getting
ready for rest ; and as often as she looked out
of the window towards the square room in the

PLEASURE AND DISAPPOINTMENT. 187

next house, she smiled. It looked so much bet-
ter than she had ever hoped to make it; and
father and Norm had seemed so pleased, and
they had all spent such a pleasant evening.

Alas for Nettie ! All the next day her hap-
piness lasted. She sang over her work ; she
charmed the little girls with stories. She made
an apple pudding for dinner, she baked some
choice potatoes for supper; but they were not
eaten, at least only by the little girls. They
waited until seven o'clock, and half-past seven,
and eight o'clock for the father and brother who
did not come. Jerry, who stopped at the door
and learned of the anxiety, slipped away to try
to find out what kept them ; but he came back
in a little while with a grave face and shook his
head. Both had left their shops at the usual
time; nobody knew what had become of them.
Jerry could guess, so also could Mrs. Decker.
The poor woman was too used to it to be very
much astonished ; but Nettie was overwhelmed.
She ate no supper ; she did not sing at all over
the dishwashing. She watched every step on
the street, and turned pale at the sound of pass-
ing voices. She put the little girls to bed, and
cried over their gay chatter. She coaxed her

188 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIB NETS.

sad-faced mother to go to bed at last, and drew
a long sigh of relief when she went into her bed-
room and shut the door. It had been so dread-
ful to hear her say: "I told you so; I knew
just how it would be. They will both come
staggering home. It's of no use."

Nettie did not believe it. She believed that
work somewhere was holding them ; people
often had extra work to do, or were sent on
errands, but she went at last over to the wood-
house chamber; it would not do to keep the
Smiths up longer. Instead of making ready for
bed, she kneeled down before the little window
which gave her a view of the next house, and
watched and waited. They came at last ; father
and son; not together. Norm came first, and
stumbled, and shuffled, and growled ; his voice
was thick, and the few words she could catch
had no connection or sense. He had too surely
been drinking. But he was not so far gone as
the father. He had to be helped along the
street by some of his companions ; he could not
hold himself upright while they opened the
door. And when the gentle wind blew it shut
again, he swore a succession of oaths which
made Nettie shudder and bury her face in her

PLEASURE AND DISAPPOINTMENT. 189

hands. But she did not cry. It was the first
time in her young life that her heart was too
heavy for tears. She drew great deep sighs as
she went about, at last, preparing for bed ; she
wished that the tears would come, for the chok-
ing feeling might be relieved by them ; but the
tears seemed dried. She tossed about on her
neat little bed, in a sorrow very unlike child-
hood. Poor, disappointed Nettie 1

The sun shone brightly the next morning, but
there was no brightness in the little girl's heart.
She was early down stairs, and stole away to
the next house without seeing anybody. Mrs.
Decker was up, with a face as wan as Nettie's.

" Well," she said, in a hopeless tone, " it's all
over. Did you hear them come in last night ?
Both of 'em. If it had been one at a time, we
could have stood it better ; but both of 'em ! I
did have a little hope, as sure as you live.
Your pa seemed so different by spells, and
Norm, he seemed to like you, and to stay at
home more, and I kind of chirked up and thought
may be, after all, good times was coming to me ;
but it's all of no use ; I've give up ; and it seema
to me it would have been easier to have stayed
down, than to have crept up, to tumble back.

190 LITTLE FISHEBS : AND THEIE NETS.

"Not that I'm blaming you, child," she said,
" you did your best, and you did wonders ; and
I think sometimes, maybe if I had made such
a brave shift as that in the beginning, things
wouldn't have got where they have. But I
didn't, and it's too late now."

Not a word had Nettie to say. It was a sad
breakfast-time. Mr. Decker shambled down
late, and had barely time to swallow his coffee
very hot, and take a piece of bread in his hand,
for the seven o'clock bells were ringing, and
punctuality was something that was insisted on
by his foreman. Norm came later, and ate very
little breakfast, and looked miserable enough to
be sent back to bed again. Nettie only saw
him through a crack in the door ; she stayed out
in the little back yard, pretending to put it
in order. He made his stay very short, and
went away without a word to mother or sister ;
and the heavy burden of life went on. Mrs.
Decker prepared to do the big ironing which
yesterday she had been glad over, because it
would give them a chance to have an extra com-
fort added to the table ; but which to-day
seemed of very little importance.

Nettie washed the dishes, and wished she

PLEASURE AND DISAPPOINTMENT. 191

was at Auntie Marshall's, and tried to plan a
way for getting there. What was the use of
staying here ? Hadn't she tried her very best
and failed? didn't the mother say it was harder
for her than though they hadn't tried at all?

In the course of the morning, Mrs. Smith sent
in a basket of corn. Sarah Jane brought it.
" Some folks on a farm that mother ironed for,
when they lived in town, sent her a great basket
full ; heaps more than we can use, and mother
said it would be just the thing for your men
folks ; they always like corn, you know."

Mrs. Decker took the basket without a smile
on her face. "Your mother is a very kind
woman," she said, "the kindest one I ever
knew; in fact, I haven't known many kind
people, and that's the truth. She has done all
she could to help us, but I don't know as we
can be helped ; it seems as though some people
couldn't."

Sarah Jane went back and told her mother
that Mrs. Decker seemed dreadful downhearted
and discouraged; and Mrs. Smith replied with
a sigh that she didn't know as she wondered a"t
it; poor thing! Nettie made the dinner as nice
as she could. Mr. Decker ate with a relish, and

192 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

said the corn was good, and he had sometimes
thought that the bit of ground back of the
house might be made to raise corn ; and Nettie
brightened a little, and looked over at Norm

O '

and was just going to say, "Let's have a gar-
den next summer," when he spoiled it by
declaring that he wouldn't slave in a garden for
anybody. It was hard enough to work ten
hours a day. Then his father told him that he
guessed he did not hurt himself with work ; and
he retorted that he guessed they neither of them
would die with over-work ; and his father told
him to hold his tongue. In short, nothing was
plainer than that these two were ashamed of
themselves, and of each other, and were much
more irritable than they had been for several
days.

The afternoon work was all done, and Nettie
had just hung up her apron, and wondered
whether she should offer to iron for awhile, or
run away to the woodhouse chamber, and write
to Auntie Marshall, when Jerry appeared in the
door. She had not seen him since the sorrow
of the night before had come upon them ; Net-
tie thought he avoided coming in, because he
too was discouraged. Her face flushed when

PLEASURE AND DISAPPOINTMENT. 193

she heard his step, and she wished something
would happen so that she'need not turn around
to him. She felt so ashamed of her own people,
and of his efforts to help them. His voice,
however, sounded just as usual.

"Through, Nettie? Then come out on the
back step ; I want to talk with you."

" There is no use in talking," she said, sadly.
But she followed him out, and sat down list-
lessly on the broad low step, which the jog in
Mr. Smith's house shaded from the afternoon
sun.

Jerry took no notice of the words if indeed
he heard them.

" I heard some news this morning," he began.
"Two of the older boys at the corner, that one
in Peck's store, you know, and the one next
door told me that a lot of fellows were going
off to-night on what he called a lark. They
have hired a boat, and are going to row across
to Duck Island, and catch some fish and have a
supper in that mean little hole which is kept on
the island ; they mean to make an all-night of
it. I don't know what is to be done next ; play
cards, I suppose; they do, whenever they get
together, and lots of drinking. It is a dreadful

194 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIE NETS.

place. Well, I heard, by a kind of accident,
that they thought of asking Norm to join 'em.
At first they- said they wouldn't, because he
wouldn't be likely to have any money to help
pay the bills ; but then they remembered that
he was a good rower, and thought they would
get his share out of him in that way; and I
say, Nettie, let's spoil their plans for them."

"How?" asked Nettie, drearily.

Jerry talked on eagerly. " I have a plan ; I
rented a boat for this afternoon, and was going
to ask Mrs. Decker to let me take you and the
chicks for a ride, and I meant to catch some
fish for our supper ; but this will be better. I
propose to invite Norm and two fellows that he
goes with some, to go out with me, fishing. I
have a splendid fishing rig, you know, and I'll
lend it to them, and help them to have a good
time, and then if you will plan a kind of treat
when we get back — coffee, you know, and fish,
and bread and butter, we could have a picnic of
our own and as much fun as they would get
with that set on the island. I believe Norm
would go; he is just after a good time, you see,
and if he gets it in this way, he will like it as
well, maybe better, than though he spent the

PLEASURE AND DISAPPOINTMENT. 195

night at it and got the worst of his bargain.
Anyhow, it is worth trying ; if we can save him
from this night's work it will be worth a good
deal. Don't you think so ? "

Instead of the hearty, "yes, indeed," which
he expected, Nettie said not a word ; and when
he turned and looked at her, to learn, what was
the matter, her face was red and the tears were
gathering in her eyes.

"Don't you know what has happened?" she
asked at last. " I thought I heard you in your
room last night when he came home."

" Yes," said Jerry, speaking gravely, " I was
up. What of it?" •

" What of it? O Jerry ! " and here the tears
which had been choking poor Nettie all day
had it their own way for a few minutes. She
had not meant to cry; but she felt at once how
quickly the tears relieved the lump in her
throat. ,

" I don't mean that, exactly," Jerry said, after
waiting a minute for the sobs to grow less deep,
" of course it was a great trouble, and I have
been so sorry for Mrs. Decker all day that I
wanted to stay away, because I could not think
of the right thing to say ; but it's only another

496 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

reason why we should work and plan in all ways
to get ahead of them and save Norm."

" O Jerry ! don't you think it is too late? "

" Too late ! What in the world can you
mean? Has anything happened to-day that I
haven't heard of? Where is Norm? Has he
gone away anywhere?"

" O, no," said Nettie, " he has gone to work ;
but I mean — I meant — doesn't it all seem to
you of no use at all ? After we worked so hard
and got everything nice, and he seemed so
pleased, and stayed at home all the evening and
talked with us, and then the very next night to
come home like that!"

Je'rry stared in blank astonishment.

"I don't believe I understand," he said at last.
" You did not think that Norm was going to re-
form the very minute you did anything pleasant
for him, did you?"

" N-no," said Nettie slowly, " I don't suppose
I did ; but it all seemed so dreadful ! I ex-
pected something, I hardly know what, and I
could not help feeling disappointed and miser-
able." Nettie's face was growing red ; she be-
gan to suspect she might be a very foolish girl.

" Why, that is queer," said Jerry. " Now I

PLEASURE AND DISAPPOINTMENT. 197

am not disappointed a bit. I am sorry, of
course, but I expected just that thing. Why,
Nettie, they go after tnen sometimes for months
and years before they get real hold and are
sure of them. There is a lawyer in New York
that father says kept three men busy for five
years trying to save him. They didn't succeed,
either, but they got him to go to the One who
could save him. He is a grand man now. Sup-
pose they had given up during those five years ! "

" Do you think it may take five years to get
hold of Norm ? " There were tears in Nettie's
eyes, but there was a little suggestion of a
smile on her face, and she waited eagerly for
Jerry's answer.

" I'm sure I hope not," he said, " but if it
does, we are not to give him up at the end of
five years; nor before five years, that is cer-
tain."

»

Nettie wiped the tears away, and smiled out-
right ; then sat still in deep thought for several
minutes. Then she arose, decision and energy
on her face.

" Thank you, Jerry ; I wish you had come in
this morning. I have been a goose, I guess,
and I almost spoiled what we tried to do. We'll

198 LITTLE FISHKBS: AND THEIK NETS.

get np a nice supper if you can get Norm and
the others to come. I don't believe they will,
but we can try. We have coffee enough to
make a nice pot of it, and Mrs. Smith sent us
some milk out of that pail from the country that
is almost cream. I will make some baked po-
tato balls, they are beautiful with fish ; all
brown, you know ; and I was going to make a
johnny-cake if I could get up interest enough in
it. I'm interested now, and I shouldn't wonder
if I staid so," and she blushed and laughed.

" You see," said Jerry, " you must not expect
things to be done in a minute. Why, even God
doesn't do things quickly, when he could, as well
as not. And he doesn't get tired of people,
either ; and that I think is queer. Have you
ever thought that if you were God, you would
wipe most all the people out of this world in a
second, and make some new ones who could be-
have better ?"

" Why, no," said Nettie, wonderment and be-
wilderment struggling together in her face, this
etrange thought sounded almost wicked to her.

"Well, I do," said Jerry sturdily; "I have
often thought of it ; I believe almost any man
would get out of patience with this old world,

PLEASURE AND DISAPPOINTMENT. 199

full of rum saloons, and gambling saloons and
tobacco. I think it is such a good thing that
men don't have the management of it.

" I'll tell you what it is, Nettie, we shall have
a pretty busy afternoon if we carry out our
plans, won't we? Suppose you go and talk the
thing up with your mother, and I will go and
see what Norm says. Or, hold on, suppose we
go together and call on him ; I'll ask him to go
fishing, and you ask him to bring his friends
home to eat the fish. How would that do ? "

It was finally agreed that that would do
beautifully, and Jerry went to see whether his
long flat stick fitted, while Nettie ran to her
mother. Mrs. Decker was ironing, her worn
face looking older and more worn, Nettie
thought, than she had ever seen it before.
Poor mother! Why had not she helped her to
bear her heavy burden, instead of almost sulk-
ing over failure ?

" O, mother," she began, u Jerry has a plan,
and we want to know what you think of it ; he
has heard of things that are to be done this
evening." And she hurried through the story
of the intended frolic on the island, and the fish-
ing party that was, if possible, to be pushed in

200 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIK NETS.

ahead. Mrs. Decker listened in silence, and at
first with an uninterested face ; presently, when
she took in the largeness of the plan, she stayed
her iron long enough to look up and say :

" What's the use, child ? I thought you and
Jerry had given up."

" O, mother," and the cheeks were rosy red
now, " I'm ashamed that I felt so discouraged ;
Jerry isn't at all ; and he thinks it is the strang-
est think that I should have been ! He says they
.have to work for years, sometimes, to get hold
of people. He knew a man that they kept work-
ing after for five years, and now he is a grand
man. He says we must hold on to Norm if it
is five years, though I don't believe it will be.
I'm going to begin over again, mother, and not
get discouraged at anything. It is true, as Jerry
says, that we can't expect Norm to reform all
in a minute. He says the boys that Norm goes
with the most are not bad fellows, only they
haven't any homes, and they keep getting into
mischief, because they have nowhere to go to
have any pleasant times. Don't you think Norm
would like it to have them asked home with him
to supper, and show them how to have a real
good time? Jerry says the two boys that he

PLEASUEE AND DISAPPOINTMENT. 201

means board at a horrid place, where they have
old bread and weak tea for supper, and where
people are smoking and drinking in the back end
of the room while they are eating. I am sure I
don't know as it is any wonder that they go to
the saloons sometimes."

Mrs. Decker still held her iron poised in air,
on her face a look that was worth studying.
"Norm hasn't ever had a decent place to ask
anybody to, nor a decent time of any kind since
he was old enough to care much about it," she
said slowly. " I thought I had done about my
best, but it may be I'll find myself mistaken.
Well, child, let's try it, for mercy's sake, or any-
thing else that that boy thinks of. You and him
together are the only ones that's done any think-
ing for Norm in years ; and if I don't go half-
way and more too for anybody that wants to do
anything, it will be a wonder."

In a very few minutes Nettie was in her neat
street dress, and the two were walking down the
shady side of the main street, toward Norm's
shop. They passed Lorena Barstow, and though
Jerry, without thinking, took off his cap to her,
she tossed her head and looked the other way.

Jerry laughed. "I did not know she was

202 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

so nearsighted as all that, did you?" he asked,
and then continued the sentence which the sight
of her had interruped. Nettie could not laugh ;
she was sore over the thought that she had so
spoiled Jerry's life for him that his old acquaint-
ances would not bow to him on the street.

Norm was at work, and worked with energy ;
they stood and looked at him through the win-
dow for a few minutes. " He works fast," said
Jerry, " and he works as though he would rather
do it than not ; Mr. Smith says there isn't a lazy
streak in him. He ought to make a smart man,
Nettie ; and I shouldn't wonder if he would."

Then they went in. To say that Norm was
astonished at sight of them, would be to tell only
half the story. He stood in doubt what to say,
but Jerry was equal to the occasion ; nothing
could have been more matter-of-course than the
way in which he told about his plans for going
fishing, declaring that the afternoon was prime
for such work, and that he was tired of going
alone. " Wouldn't Norm and his two friends go
too ?" Now a ride in a boat was something that
Norm rarely had. In the first place, boats cost
money, and in the second place they took time.
To be sure, after working hours, there was time

PLEASURE AND DISAPPOINTMENT. 203

enough for rowing, but boats were sure to be
scarce then, even if money had been plenty.

Norm wiped his face with a corner of his work-
apron, and admitted that he Avould like to go,
first-rate, but did not know as he could get away.
They were not over busy it was true, neither
was the foreman troubled with good nature ; he
would be next to certain to say no, if Norm
asked to be let off at five o'clock.

" Let's try him," said Jerry, and he walked
boldly to the other side of the room where the
foreman stood.

CHAPTER XI.

A COMPLETE SUCCESS.

man was a friend of Jerry's ; it was
only two weeks ago that he had done him
a good turn, in finding and bringing home his
stray cow. He was perfectly good-natured, and
found no fault at all with Norm's leaving the
shop at five ; in fact he said he was glad to
have the boy leave in such good company.

" Would the others go?" Nettie questioned
eagerly, and Norm, laughing, said he reckoned
they would go quick enough if they got a
chance; invitations to take boat rides were not
so plenty that they could afford to lose them.

Then was time for Nettie's great surprise.

" And, Norm, will you bring them all home
to supper with you? I'll have everything ready
to cook the fish in a hurry as soon as you get
into the house, and you can visit in the new
room until they are ready."
204

A COMPLETE SUCCESS. 205

Now indeed, I wish you could have seen
Norm ! It never happened to him before to have
a chance to invite anybody home to supper with
him. He looked at Nettie in silent bewilder-
ment for a minute ; he even rubbed his eyes as
though possibly he might be dreaming ; but she
looked so real and so trim, and so sure of herself
standing there quietly waiting his answer, that
at last he stammered out :

" What do you mean, Nannie? You aren't in
dead earnest?"

" Why, of course," said Nettie, deciding in a
flash upon her plan of action ; she would do as
Jerry had, and take all this as a matter of course.
" I'm going to make a lovely johnny-cake for
supper, and some new-fashioned potatoes, and we
have cream for the coffee. You shall have an
elegant supper ; only be sure you catch lots of
fish."

It was all arranged at last to their satisfac-
tion, and the two conspirators turned away to
get ready for their part of the business.

" Norm liked it," said Jerry. " Couldn't you
see by his face that he did ? I believe we can
get hold of him after awhile, by doing things of
this kind ; things that make him remember he

206 LITTLE FISHEES : AND THEIE NETS.

has a home, and pleasant times, like other boys."

If Jerry had waited fifteen minutes he might
have been surer of that even than he was.
Norm's second invitation followed hard on the
first; and Norm, who felt a little sore over cer-
tain meannesses of the night before, and who
knew his foreman was within hearing and would
be sure to object to this young fellow who had
come to ask him to go to the island, answered
loftily : " Can't do it ; I've promised to go out
fishing with a party ; and besides, our folks are
going to have company to tea."

Company to tea ! He almost laughed when
he said it. How very strange the sentence
sounded.

" O, indeed," said Jim Noxen from the saloon.
" Seems to me you are getting big."

" It sounds like it," said Norman. " I wonder
if I am?" But this he said to himself; for
answer to the remark, he only laughed.

" If I had a chance to keep company with a
young fellow like Jerry, and a trim little woman
like that sister of yours, I guess I wouldn't often
be found with the other set."

This the foreman said, with a significant nod
of his head toward the young fellow who repre-

A COMPLETE SUCCESS. 207

sented the other set." And this, too, had its
influence.

Jerry and Nettie had a glimpse of one of
Norm's friends as they passed his shop on their
homeward way.

" He has a good face," said Nettie. «* Poor
fellow! Hasn't he any home at all? Don't
you wish we could get hold of him so close that
he would help us ? He looks as though he might."

Then she stepped into the boat and floated
idly around, while Jerry ran for the oars ; and
while she floated, she thought and planned.
There was a great deal to be done, both then
and afterwards.

" I wish you could go with us and catch a fish,"
said Jerry, as he saw how she enjoyed the water,
" but maybe it wouldn't be just the thing."

" I know it wouldn't," said Nettie ; "besides,
who would make the johnny-cake, and the po-
tato balls? There is a great deal to be done to
make things match, when you are catching fish.w

The fishing party was a complete success.
Jerry said afterwards that the very fish acted as
though they were in the secret and were bound
to help. He had never seen them bite so readily.
By seven o'clock, the boat was headed home-

208 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

ward, with more fish than even four hungry boys
could possibly eat.

"Now for supper," said Norm, who with se-
cret delight had thought constantly of the sur-
prise in store for Alf and Rick. "Boys, I'm
going to take you home with me and show you
what a prime cook my little sister is. We'll
have these fish sizzling in a pan quicker than
you have any notion of ; and she knows how to
sizzle them just right; doesn't she, Jerry?"

But Jerry was spared the trouble of a reply,
for Alf with incredulous stare said, "You're
gassing now."

" No, I'm not gassing. You can come home
with me, honor bright, and you shall have such
a supper as would make old Ma'am Turner
wild."

Old Ma'am Turner, poor soul, was the woman
who kept the wretched boarding house where
these homeless boys boarded, and she really did
know how to make things taste a little worse,
probably, than any one you know of.

" What'll your mother say to your bringing
folks home to supper?" questioned Rick, look-
ing as incredulous as his friend. " She'll give
us a hint of broomstick, I reckon, if we try it."

A COMPLETE SUCCESS. 209

" Well," said Norm, unconcernedly, dipping
the oar into the water, " try it and see, if you
are a mind to, that's all I've got to say. I ain't
going to force you to eat fish ; but I promise
you a first-class meal of them if you choose to
come."

"Oh ! we'll go," said Alf, with a giggle; " if
we are broomed out the next second, we'll try
it, just to see what will come of it. Things is
queerer in this world than folks think, often ;
now I didn't believe a word of it, when you said
we was going out in a boat to-night; I thought
it was some of your nonsense ; and here the lit-
tle fellow has treated us prime."

The " little fellow " was Jerry, who smiled
and nodded in honor of his compliment, but
said nothing ; he resolved to let Norm do the
honors alone.

They went with long strides to the Decker
home, Jerry waiting to fasten the boat and pay
his bill. Each boy carried a fine string of fish
of his own catching ; and appeared at the back
door just as Nettie came out to look.

" O, what beauties ! " she said, gleefully ;
" and such a nice lot of them ! I'm all ready
and waiting. You go in, Norm, with your

210 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

friends, and we'll have them cooking as soon as
we can."

" Not much," said Norm, coming around to
the board which she had evidently gotten ready
for cleaning the fish, and diving his hand in his
pocket in search of his jack-knife. " Let's fall
to, boys, and clean these fellows. I know how,
and I think likely you do, and they'll taste the
better, like enough."

"Just so," said Rick Walker, who owned the
face that Nettie had decided was a good one.
" I'm agreeable ; I know how to clean fish as
well as the next one ; used to do it for mother,
when I was a little shaver."

Did the sentence end in a sigh, or did Nettie
imagine it ? All three went to work with strong
skilful hands, and Nettie hopped back and forth
bringing fresh water, and fresh plates, and feel-
ing in her secret heart very grateful to. the boys
for doing this, which she had dreaded.

They were all done in a very short time, and
each boy in turn had washed his hands in the
basin which shone, and then, the shining, or the
smoothness and beautiful cleanness of the great
brown towel, or something, prompted Rick to
take fresh water and dip his brown face into it,

A COMPLETE SUCCESS. 211

and toss the water about like a great Newfound-
land dog.

" I declare, that feels good ! " he said. " Try
it, Alf." And Alf tried it.

Then Norm led the way to the new room. It
would have done Nettie's heart good if she had
known how many times he had thought of that
room during the last hour. He knew it would
be a surprise to the boys. They had never seen
anything but the Decker kitchen, and not much
of that, standing at the door to wait a minute
for Norm, but the few glimpses they had had of
it, had not led them to suppose that there was
any such place in the house as this in which he
was now going to usher them. Their surprise
was equal to the occasion. They stopped in the
doorway, and looked around upon the prettiness,
the bright carpet, the delicate curtains, the gay
chairs ! nothing like this was to be found at
Ma'am Turner's, nor in any other room with
which they were familiar.

" Whew ! " said Rick, closing the word with
a shrill whistle ; " I think as much ! " said Alf.
" Who'd have dreamed it. I say, Norm, you're
a sly one ; why didn't you ever let on that you
had this kind of thing ? "

212 LITTLE FISHEES: AND THEIR NETS.

How they entertained one another during
that next hour, Nettie did not know Eyes and
brain were occupied in the kitchen. Jerry
came, presently, but reported that they were
getting on all right in the front room, and he
believed he could do better service in the kitchen ;
so he sat the table with a delicate regard for
nicety which Nettie had been taught at Auntie
Marshall's, and which she knew he had not
learned at Mrs. Job Smith's. Sarah Jane was
rigidly clean, but never what Nettie called
" nice."

" We'll take the .table in the front room," de-
creed Nettie as she surveyed it thoughtfully for
a few minutes. " It is very warm out here, and
they will like it better to be quite alone ; we can
put all the dishes on, with the leaves down, and
set them in their places in a twinkling, after we
have lifted it in there. Won't that be the way,
mother ? "

" Land ! " said Mrs. Decker, withdrawing her
head from the oven, whither it had gone to see
after the new-fashioned potato balls, " I should
think they could eat out here ; you may depend
they never saw so clean a kitchen at old Ma'am
Turner's. But it is hot here, and no mistake ;

A COMPLETE SUCCESS. 213

and I should not know what to do with myself
while they was eating. Please yourself, child,
and then I'll be pleased. I'm going to save one
of these potatoes for your pa ; I never see
anything in my life look prettier than they do."

Mrs. Decker's tones told much plainer than
her words, that she liked Nettie's idea of put-
ting the table in the front room for Norm's com-
pany. She would not have owned it, but her
mother-heart was glad over a "fuss" being
made for her Norm.

So the table went in ; Jerry at one end, and
Nettie at the other. They hushed a loud laugh
by their entrance, but Jerry went immediately
over to Rick Walker to show a new-fashioned
knife, and Nettie's fingers flew over the table,
so by the time the knife had been exhausted, she
was ready to vanish.

Confess now that you would like to have had
a seat at that table when it was ready. A plat-
ter of smoking fish, done to the nicest brown,
without drying or burning ; a bowl of lovely
little brown balls, each of them about the size of
an egg, a plate of very light and puffy-looking
Johnny-cake, and to crown all, coffee that filled
the room with such an aroma as Ma'am Turner

214 LITTLE FISHERS: AND TI^EIR NETS.

perhaps dreamed of, but never certainly in these
days smelled. Mrs. Job Smith at the last min-
ute had sent in a pat of genuine country butter,
and Sate had flown to the grocery for a piece
of ice with which to keep it in countenance.

Jerry set the chairs, and Nettie poured the
coffee, and creamed and sugared it, and then
slipped away.

She knew by the looks on the faces of the
guests, that they were astonished beyond words,
and she knew that Norm was both 'astonished
and pleased. There was another supper being
made ready in the kitchen. Mrs. Decker had
herself tugged in the box which had been lately
set up as a washbench, and spread the largest
towel over it, and was serving three lovely fish,
and a bowl of potato balls for "Decker" and her-
self.

" I guess I'm going to have company too," she
said to Nettie, her face beaming. " Your pa has
gone to wash up, and I thought seeing there was
only two chairs, and two plates left, you wouldn't
mind having him and me sit down together, for
a meal, first."

" Yes, T do mind," said Nettie ; " I think it is
a lovely plan; I'm so glad you thought of it,

A COMPLETE 8UCCES8. 215

and Jerry and I will keep watch that they have
everything in the other room, while you eat."
If you are wondering in your hearts where those
important beings, Sate and Susie, were at this
moment, I should have told you before, that
Sarah Jane had a brilliant thought, but an hour
before, and carried them out to tea. So all the
Decker family were visiting that evening, save
Nettie, and I think perhaps she was the happi-
est among them all. Every time she heard a
burst of fresh fun from the front room, she
laughed, too ; it was so nice to think that Norm
was having a good time in his own home, and
nothing to worry over.

It is almost a pity that, for her encourage-
ment, she could not have heard some of the con-
versation in that room.

" I say, Norm," said his friend Alf, his tones
muffled by reason of a large piece of johnny-
cake, " what an awful sly fellow you are ! You
never let on that you had these kind of doings
in your house. Who'd have thought that you
had a stunning room like this for folks, and po-
tatoes done up in brown satin, to eat, and coffee
such as they get up at the hotels ! It beats aU
creation ! "

216 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

" That's so," said Rick, taking in a 'quarter of
a fish at one mouthful, " I never dreamed of such
.a thing ; what beats me, is, why a fellow who
has such nice doings at home, wants to loaf
around, and spend evenings at Beck's, or at
Steen's. Hang me if I don't think the contrast
a little too great. 'Pears to me if I had this
kind of thing, I should like to enjoy it oftener
than Norm seems to."

Norman smiled loftily on them. Do you
think he was going to own that " this kind of
thing " had never been enjoyed in his home be-
fore, during all the years of his recollection?
Not he ; he only said that folks liked a change
once in awhile, of course, and he only laughed
when Rick and Alf both declared that if they
knew themselves, and they thought they did,
they would be content never to change back
from this kind of thing to Ma'am Turner's sup-
per table so long as they lived.

How those boys did eat ! Nettie owned to
herself that she was astonished ; and privately
rejoiced that she had made four johnny-cakes
instead of three, though it had seemed almost
extravagant until she remembered that it would
warm up nicely for breakfast. Not a crumb

A COMPLETE SUCCESS. 217

•

would there be for breakfast. She had one re-
gret and she told it to Jerry as she went out to
him on the back stoop, having poured the third
cup of coffee around, for the three in the front
room.

"Jerry, I am just afraid there won't be a
speck of johnny-cake left for you to taste.
Those boys do eat so ! "

" Never mind," laughed Jerry. " We will eat
the tail of a fish, if any of them have a tail left,
and rejoice over our success ; this thing is go-
ing to work, I believe, if we can keep it going."

" That's the trouble," said Nettie, an anxious
look in her eyes. " How can we ? Fish won't do
every time ; and there are no other things that
you can catch. Besides, even this has cost a
great deal. I paid eight cents for lard to fry
the fish, and the butter and milk and things
would have cost as much as fifteen cents cer-
tainly. Mrs. Smith furnished them this time,
but of course such things won't happen again."

"A great many things happen," said Jerry,
-wisely. " More than you can calculate on.
' Never cross a bridge until you come to it, my
boy.' Didn't I tell you that was what my father
was always saying to me? I have found it a

218 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

good plan, too, to follow his advice. Many a
time I've worried over troubles that never came.
Look here, don't you believe that if we are to do
this thing and good is to come from it, we shall
be able to manage it somehow ? "

" Why, y-e-s," said Nettie, slowly, as though
she were waiting to see whether her faith could
climb so high ; " I suppose that is so."

" Well, if good isn't going to come of it, do
we want to do it ? "

" Of course not."

•»

" All right, then," with a little laugh. " What
are we talking about?" And Nettie laughed,
and ran in to give her father his last cup of cof-
fee, and to hear him say that he hadn't had so
good a meal in six years.

It was a curious fact that Susie and Sate were
the chief movers in the next thing that these
young Fishers did to interest the particular
fish whom they were after.

It began the next Sabbath morning in Sab-
bath-school. There, the little girls heard with
deep interest that on the following Sabbath
there was to be a service especially for the chil-
dren. A special feature of the day was to be
the decoration of the church with flowers, which

A COMPLETE SUCCESS. 219

the children were to bring on the previous Sat-
urday. Susie and Sate promised with the rest,
that they would bring flowers. Promised in the
confident expectation of childhood that some
way they could join the others and do as they
did; though both little girls knew that not a
flower grew in or about them. During the
early part of the week they forgot it, but on
Saturday morning they stood in the little front
yard and saw a sight which recalled all the de-
lights of the coming Sunday in which they
seemed to be having no share. The little girls
from the Orphanage on the hill were bringing
their treasures. Even fat little Karl who was
only five, had a potted plant in full bloom, which
he was proudly carrying. Little Dutch Maggie,
in her queer long apron, carried a plant with
lovely satiny leaves which were prettier than
any bloom, and behind her was Robert the
Scotch gardener with his arms full ; then young
Rob Severn, Miss Wheeler's nephew, had a lovely
fuchsia just aglow with blossoms, and Miss
Wheeler herself, who was the matron at the Or-
phanage, was carrying a choice plant. All these
the hungry eyes of Sate and Susie took in, as
the procession passed the house, then they ran

220 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIE NETS.

wailing to Nettie who had already become the
long suffering person to whom they must pour
out their woes.

" We promised, we did," explained Sate, her
earnest eyes fixed on Nettie, while her arms
clasped that young lady just as she was in the
act of throwing out her dishwater. "We did
promise, and they will 'spect them, and they
won't be there."

" Well, but, darling, what made you promise,
when you knew we had no flowers ? Mrs. Smith
would give you some in a minute if hers were in
bloom. Why didn't they wait a little later, I
wonder? Then Mrs. Smith could have given
us such lovely china-asters."

" We must have some to-morrow," said the
emphatic Susie, and she fastened her black eyes
on Nettie in a way that said : " Now you under-
stand what must be, I hope you will at once set
about bringing it to pass."

Nettie could not help laughing. " If you were
a fairy queen," she said, "and could wave your
wand and say, ' Flowers, bloom,' and they would
obey you, we should certainly have some ;'as it
is, I don't quite see how they are to be had. We
have no friends to ask."

A COMPLETE SUCCESS. 221

"I can't help it," said Susie, positively, "we
promised to bring some, and of course we must.
You said, Nettie Decker, that we must always
keep our promises."

"Now, Miss Nettie Decker, you are con-
demned ! " said Jerry, with grave face but laugh-
ing eyes; "something must evidently be done
about this business. Dandelions are gone, ex-
cept the whiteheads, and they would blow away
before they got themselves settled in church, I
am afraid. Hold on, I have a thought, just a
splendid one if I can manage it ; wait a bit,
Susie, and we will see what AVC can do."

Susie, who was beginning to have full faith in
this wise friend of theirs, told Sate in confidence
that they^were going to have some flowers to
take to church, as well as the rest of them ; she
did not know what Jerry was going to make
them out of, but she knew he would make some.

After that, Jerry was not seen again for sev-
eral hours. In fact it was just as the dinner
dishes Avere washed, that he appeared with a
triumphant face. "Have you made some?"
asked Sate, springing up from her dolly and go-
ing toward him expectantly.

" Made some what, Curly ? "

222 LITTLE FISHERS : AJ*D THEIR NETS. .

"Flowers," said Sate, gravely. "Susie said
she knew you would."

Jerry laughed. " Susie has boundless faith in
impossibilities," he said. " No, I haven't made
the flowers, but I have the boat. That old
thing that leaked so, you know, Nettie; well,
I've put it in prime order, and got permission
to use it, and if you and the chicks will come,
we will sail away to where they make flowers,
and pick all we want ; unless some wicked fairy
has whispered my bright thought to somebody
else, and I don't believe it, for I have seen no
one out on the pond to-day."

^Then Sate, her eyes very large, went in search
of Susie to tell her that this wonderful boy. had
come to take them where flowers were made,
and to let them gather for themselves.

" I suppose it is heaven," said Sate, gravely,
" because the real truly flowers, you know, God
makes, and he has his things all up in heaven to
work with, I guess."

" What a little goosie you are ! " said Susie,
curling her wise lip ; " as if Jerry Mack could
take us to heaven ! "

However, she went at once to see about it,
and was almost as much astonished to think

A COMPLETE SUCCESS. 223

• •

that they were really going out in a boat, as she
would have been if they were going to heaven.
" I s'pose it's safe ? " said Mrs. Decker doubtfully,
watching the light in the little girls' eyes, and
remembering how few pleasures had been of-
fered them.

"O, yes'm," said Jerry, "as safe as the road.
I could row a boat, ma'am, very well indeed,
father said, when I was six years old ; and you
couldn't coax that clumsy old thing to tip over,
if you wanted it to ; and if it should, the water
isn't up to my waist anywhere in the pond."

Mrs. Decker laughed, and said it sounded
safe enough ; and went back to her ironing, and
the four happy people sailed away. If not to
where the pond lilies were made, at least to where
they grew in all their wild sweet beauty.

"How very strange," said Nettie, as they
leaned over the great rude, flat-bottomed boat
and pulled the beauties in ; " how very strange
that no one has gathered these for to-morrow.
Why, nothing could be more lovely !"

" Well," said Jerry, " only a few people row
this way, because it isn't the pleasantest part of
the pond, you know, for rowing; and I guess
no one has remembered that the lilies were out;

224 LITTLE FISHEES: AND THEIR NETS.

»

there don't many people, only fishermen, go out
on this pond, you know, because the boats are
so ugly ; arid fishermen don't care for flowers, I
guess. Anyhow, they haven't been here, for
the buds are all on hand, just as I thought they
would be by this time, when I was here on Tues-
day. But I never thought of the church; so
you see how little thinking is done."

Well, they gathered great loads of the beau-
ties, and rowed home in triumph, and put the
lilies in a tub of water, and sat down to consider
how best to arrange them. It was curious that
Mrs. Job Smith should have been the next one
with an idea.

"I should think," she said, standing in the
doorway of her kitchen, her hands on her sides,
" I should think a great big salver of them laid
around in their own leaves, would be the pretti-
est thing in the world."

" So it would," said Nettie, " the very thing,
if we only had the salver."

" Well, I've got that. Mrs. Sims, she gave
me an old battered and bruised one, when they
were moving. It is big enough to put all the
cups and saucers on in town, almost ; when I
lugged it home, Job, he wanted to know what

A COMPLETE SUCCESS. 225

on earth I wanted of that, and says I, I don't
know, but she give it to me, and most every-
thing in this world comes good, if you keep it
long enough. Sarah Ann, you run up to the
corner in the back garret and get that thing, and
see what they'll make of it."
So Sarah Ann ran.

CHAPTER XII.

AN UNEXPECTED HELPEB.

|_)ERHAPS you do not see how the pond

lilies, lovely as they were, arranged on

that salver, helped Jerry and Nettie in their

plans for Norm and his friends. But there is

another part to that story.

After the salver had been filled with sand,
and covered with moss, and soaked until it
would absorb no more water, and the lilies
had been laid in so thickly that they looked
like a great white bank of bloom, the whole
was lovely, as I said, but heavy. The walk to
the church was long, and Nettie, thinking of it,
surveyed her finished work with a grave face.
How was it ever to be gotten to the church?
She tried to lift one end of it, and shook her
head. There was no hope that she could even
help carry it for so long a distance. Mrs. Smith
saw the trouble in her eyes, and guessed at its
226

A.X UNEXPECTED HELPER. 227

cause. "It is an awful heavy thing, that's a
fact," she said, " hefting " it in her strong arms ;
" I don't know how you are going to manage it ;
Sarah Jane would help in a minute, but there's
her back ; she ain't got no back to speak of, Sarah
Jane hasn't. And there's Job, he ain't at home ;
he went this morning before it was light, away
over the other side of the clip hill with a load,
and the last words he says to me was: 'Don't
you be scairt if I don't get round very early ;
them roads over there is dreadful heavy, and I
shall have to rest the team in the heat of the
day,' and like enough he won't get back till nigh
ten o'clock."

Certainly no help could be expected from the
Smith family. " We shall have to take some
of the sand out, " said Nettie, surveying the
mound regretfully ; " I'm real sorry ; it does
look so pretty heaped up ! but Jerry can never
carry it away down there alone."

Then came Jerry's bright idea. "I'll get
Norman to help me."

" Norm ! " said Nettie, stopping astonished in
the very act of picking out some of the lilies. It
had not once occurred to her that Norm could be
asked to go to the church on an errand. She

228 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

couldn't have told why, but Norm and the
church seemed too far apart to have anything
in common.

" Yes," said Jerry, positively. " Why not ?
I know he'll help ; and he and I can carry it
like a daisy. Don't take out one of them,
Nettie. I know you will spoil it if you touch
it again ; it is just perfect. Halloo, Norm,
come this way."

Sure enough at that moment Norm appeared
from the attic where he slept ; he had washed
his face and combed his hair, and made himself
as decent looking as he could, and was starting
for somewhere ; and Nettie remembered with a
sinking heart that it was Saturday night ;
Norm's worst night except Sunday.

He stopped at Jerry's call, and stood waiting.

"You are just the individual I wanted to see
at this moment," said Jerry with a confident
air. "This meadow here has got to be dug up
and carried bodily down to the church ; and it is
as heavy as though its roots were struck deep in
the soil. Will you shoulder an end with me ? "

" To the church ! " repeated Norm with an
incredulous stare. " What do they want of that
thing at the church ? "

AN UNEXPECTED HELPER. 229

" They are our flowers," said Sate with a posi-
tive little nod of her head. " We promised to
bring them, and they are so big and heavy we
can't. Will you help ? "

Now Norm had really a very warm feeling in
his heart for this small sister ; Susie he consid-
ered a nuisance, and a vixen, but Sate with her
slow sweet voice, and shy ways, had several
times slipped behind his chair to escape a slap
from her angry father, thus appealing to his
protection, and once when he lifted her over the
fence, she kissed him ; he was rather willing to
please Sate. Then there was Jerry who was a
good fellow as ever lived, and Nettie who was
a prime girl ; why shouldn't he help tote the
thing down to the church if that was what they
wanted? To-be sure he wanted to go in the
other direction, and the fellows would be wait-
ing, he supposed ; but he could go there, after-
wards, let them wait until he came.

" Well," he said at last, " come on, I'll help ;
though what they want of all this rubbish at
the church is more than I can imagine." And

0

Nettie and the little girls stood with satisfied
faces watching the two move off under their
heavy burden. It was something to have Norm

280 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIK NETS.

go to church if it was only to carry flowers.

Arrived at the door, Norm was seized with a
fit of shyness ; the doors were thrown wide
open, and ladies and children were flitting about,
and many tongues were going, and flowers and
vines were being festooned around the gas
lights, and the pillars, and wherever there was
a spot for them.

"Hold on," said Norm, jerking back, thus
putting the great salver in eminent peril, " I
ain't going in there ; all the village is there ; you
better pitch this rubbish out, they've got flowers
enough."

" There isn't a lily among them," said Jerry.
" And besides they have to go in, anyhow, we
can't afford to disappoint Sate. Come on, Norm,
I can't carry the thing alone, any more than I
could the stove ; it is unaccountably heavy."

This was true, but Jerry was very glad that
it was. He had his reasons for wanting to get
Norm down the aisle to the front of the pulpit.
With very reluctant feet Norm followed, bear-
ing his share of the burden, his face flushing
over the exclamations with which they were at
last greeted.

"Oh, oh! pond lilies! I did not know there

AN UNEXPECTED HELPEE. 231

were any this year. Where did you get them ?
Girls, look! Did you ever see anything more
lovely? "And a group of faces were gathered
about the tray, and one brown head went down
among the lilies and caressed them.

" Where did you get them ? " she repeated ; " I
asked my cousin if there were any about here,
and she said she thought not ; and last night
when I was out on the pond I looked and could
not find any." #

" They hide," said Jerry. " The only place
on the pond where they can be found is down
behind the old mill ; and most people don't go
there at all, because the channel is so narrow,
and the water so shallow."

"Well, we are so glad you brought them!
Girls, aren-'t they too lovely for anything ? Who
arranged them?"

" My sister," said Norm, to whom Jerry
promptly turned with an air which said as
plainly as words could have done: "You are
the one to answer ; she belongs to you."

"And who is that?" asked the owner of the
pretty brown head, as she made way for them
to pass to the table with their burden. " I am
sure I would like to know her ; for she certainly

232 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

knows how to put flowers into lovely shapes."
Then came from behind the desk a man
whom Jerry knew and whom he had seen while
he stood at the door. " Good evening, Jerry,"
he said, holding out his hand in a, cordial way.
"What a wonderful bank of beauty you have
brought ! Introduce me to your helper, please."
"Mr. Sherrill, Mr. Norman Decker," said
Jerry, exactly as though he had been used to
introducing people all Ms life; and Norm, his
face very red, knew that he was shaking hands
with the new minister. A very cordial hand-
shake, certainly, and then the minister turning
to her of the brown head, said, " Eva, come here ;
let me introduce you to Mr. Norman Decker.
My sister, Mr. Decker."

Norm, hardly knowing what he was about,
contrived another bow, and then Miss Eva said,
" Decker, why, that is the name of my two little
darlings about whom I have been telling you
for two Sabbaths. Are they your little sisters,
Mr. Decker? Little Sate and Susie?" And as
Norm managed to nod an answer, she continued :
" They have stolen my heart utterly ; that little
Sate is the dearest little thing. By the way, I
wonder if these are her flowers ? She promised

AN UNEXPECTED HELPER. 233

me she would certainly get some ; she said they
had none in their garden, but God would make
some grow for her somewhere she guessed."

" Yes'm," said Jerry, seeing that Norm would
not speak, " they are her flowers, hers and
Susie's, they coaxed us to go for them."

" Decker," said the minister, suddenly, " you
are pretty tall, I wonder if you are not just the
one to help me get this wreath fastened back of
the pulpit? I have been working at it for some
time, and failed for the want of an arm long
enough and strong enough to help me." And
the two disappeared behind the desk up the
pulpit stairs to the immense satisfaction of Jerry.
The ladies went on with their work ; Miss
Eva calling to him to help her move the table,
and then to help arrange the salver on it, and
then to bring more vines from the lecture room
to cover the base of the floral cross ; and indeed,
before they knew it, both Jerry and Norm were
in the thick of the engagement ; Jerry flitting
hither and thither at the call of the girls, and
Norm following the minister from point to
point, and using his long limbs to good advan-
tage.

"Well," he said, wiping his face with his

234 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

coat sleeve, as, more than an hour after their
entrance, he and Jerry made their way down
the churchyard walk, "that is the greatest snarl
I ever got into. How that fellow can work !
But he would never have got them things up in
the world, if I had not been there to help him."

" No," said Jerry " I don't believe he would.
How glad they were to get the lilies ! They do
look prettier than anything there. I did not
know who that lady was who taught the little
folks. She has only been there a few weeks.
She is pretty, isn't she ? "

" I s'pose so," said Norm, " her voice is, any-
how. They say she's a singer. I heard the
fellows down at the corner talking about her
one night ; Dick Welsh says she can mimic a
bird so you couldn't tell which was which. I
wouldn't mind hearing her sing. I like good
singing."

"I suppose they will have her sing in the
church," said Jerry in a significant tone. But
to this, Norm made no reply.

" What was it Mr. Sherrill wanted of you
just as we were coming out?" asked Jerry,
after reflecting whether he had better ask the
question or not.

AN UNEXPECTED HELPEB. 235

" Wanted me to come and see how the things
looked in the daytime," said Norm with an
awkward laugh that ended in a half sneer;
"I'll be likely to I think!"

" Going up home, I s'pose ? " said Jerry, try-
ing to speak indifferently, and slipping his hand
through Norm's arm as they reached the corner,
and Norm half halted.

"Well, I suppose I might as well," Norm
said, allowing himself to be drawn on by never
BO slight a pressure from Jerry's arm. " I was
going down street, and the boys were to wait
for me ; but they have never waited all this
while ; it must be considerable after nine
o'clock."

" Yes," said Jerry, *' it is<" And they went
home.

Nettie, sitting on the doorstep, waiting, will
never forget that night, nor the sinking of
heart with which she waited. Her father had
been kept at home, first by his employer who
came to give directions about work to be at-
tended to the first thing on Monday morning,
and then by Job Smith getting home before he
was expected and asking a little friendly help
with the load he brought ; and he had at last

286 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIE NETS.

decided that it was too late to go out again, and
had gone to bed. Mrs. Decker in her kitchen,
hovered between the door and the window,
peering out into the lovely night, saying noth-
ing, but her heart throbbing so with anxiety
about her boy that she could not lay her tired
body away. Mrs. Job Smith in her kitchen,
looked from her door and then her window,
many misgivings in her heart ; if that bad boy
Norm should lead her good boy Jerry into mis-
chief what should she say to his father ? How
could she ever forgive herself for having en-
couraged the intimacy between him and the
Deckers ?

Presently, far down the quiet street came the
sound of cheery whistling; Nettie knew the
voice : nothing so very bad could have happened
when Jerry was whistling like that ; or was he
perhaps doing it to keep his courage up ? The
whistle turned the corner, and in the dim star-
light she could distinguish .two figures; they
came on briskly, Jerry and Norm. "A nice job
you set us at," began Jerry, gayly, " we have
just this minute got through ; and here it is
toward morning somewhere, isn't it?" Then
all that happy company went to their beds.

AN UNEXPECTED HELPER, 237

After dinner the next day, Nettie studied if
there were not ways in which she might coax
Norm to go to church that evening. Jerry had
told her of the minister's invitation. Norm had
slept later than usual that morning, and lounged
at home until after dinner; now he was prepar-
ing to go out. How could she keep him? How
could she coax him to go with her?

Before she could decide what to do to try to
hold him, Susie took matters into her own
hands by pitching head foremost out of the
kitchen window, hitting her head on the stones.
Then there was hurry and confusion in the
Decker kitchen ! Then did Mrs. Smith, and
Job Smith, and Sarah Jane fly to the rescue.
Though after all, Norm was the one who stooped
over poor silent Susie and brought her limp and
apparently lifeless into the kitchen. Jerry ran
with all speed for the doctor. It was hours
before they settled down again, having discov-
ered that Susie was not dead, but had fainted ;
was not even badly hurt, save for a bump or two.
But it took the little lady only a short time,
after recovering from her fright, to discover
that she was a person of importance, and to
like the situation.

£38 LITTLE FISHEES: AND THEIR NETS.

It happened that Norm had, by the doctor's
directions, carried her from her mother's bed to
the cooler atmosphere of the front room. Susie
had enjoyed the ride, and now announced with
the air of a conqueror, "I want Norm to carry
me." So Norm, frightened into love and ten-
derness, lifted the little girl in his strong arms, laid
the pretty head on his shoulder, and willingly
tramped up and down the room. Was Susie a
witch, or a selfish little girl? Certain it was
that during that walk she took an unaccounta-
ble and ever increasing fancy for Norm. He
must wet the brown paper on her head as often
4s the vinegar with which it was saturated dried
away ; he must hold the cup while she took a
drink of water; he must push the marvel of a
barrel chair in which she for a time sat in state,
closer to the window ; he must carry her from
the chair to the table when supper was finally
ready, and carry her back again when it was
eaten. Nettie looked on amused and puzzled.
Certainly Susie had kept Norm at home all the
afternoon ; but was she also likely to accomplish
it for the evening? For Norm, to her great
surprise, seemed to like the new order of
things.

AN UNEXPECTED HELPEB. 239

He blushed awkwardly when Susie gently
pushed her mother aside and demanded Norm,
but he came at once, with a good-natured laugh,
and held her in his arms with as much gentle-
ness and more strength than the mother could
have given; and seemed to like the touch of the
curly head on his shoulder.

But while Nettie was putting away the dishes
and puzzling over all the strange events of the
afternoon, Susie was undressed, partly by Norm,
according to her decree, and fell asleep in his
arms and was laid on her mother's bed, and
Norm slipped away!

Poor Nettie ! She ran to the door to try to
call him, but he was out of sight. "I tried to
think of something to keep him till you came
in," explained the disappointed mother, "but I
couldn't do it ; he laid Susie down as quick as
he could, and shot away as though he was afraid
you would get hold of him."

So Nettie, her face sad, prepared to go with
Jerry and the Smiths down to evening meeting,
and told Jerry on the way, that it did seem
strange to her, so long as Susie had kept Norm
busy all the afternoon, that they must let him
slip away from them at last.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE LITTLE PICTUKE MAKEBS.

A FTER Susie Decker pitched out of the
~^ window that Sabbath afternoon she be-
came such an object of importance that you
would hardly have supposed anything else could
have happened worth mentioning ; but after the
excitement was quite over, and Susie had been
cuddled and petted and cared for more than it
seemed to her she had ever been in her life be-
fore, Mr. Decker, finding nothing better to do,
went out and sat down on the doorstep.

Little Sate dried her eyes and slipped away
very soon after she discovered that Susie could
move, and speak, and was therefore not dead.
She had wandered in search of entertainment
to the yard just around the corner, where had
come but a few days before, a small boy on a
visit.

This boy, Bobby by name, finding Sunday a
240

THE LITTLE PICTURE MAKERS. 241

hard day, had finally, after getting into all sorts
of mischief within doors, been established by an
indulgent auntie in the back yard, with her
apron tied around his chubby neck, to protect
his new suit, with a few pieces of charcoal, and
permission to draw some nice Sunday pictures
on the white boards of the house.

This business interested Sate, and in spite of
her shyness, drew her the other side of the high
board fence which separated the neighbor's back
yard from Mr. Decker's side one.

Just as that gentleman took his seat on the
doorstep, he heard the voices of the two chil-
dren ; first, Bobby's confident one, the words he
used conveying aji assurance of unlimited power
at his command —

"Now, what shall I make?"

" Make," said Sate, her sweet face thrown up-
ward in earnest thought, " make the angel who
would have come for Susie if she had died just
now."

" How do you know any angel would have
come for her ? " asked sturdy Bobby.

" Why, 'cause I know there would. Miss
Sherrill said so to-day; she told us about that
little baby that died last night ; she said an

LITTLE FISHEKS : AND THEIE NETS.

angel came after it and took it right straight up
to heaven."

"Maybe she don't know," said skeptical
Bobby.

Then did Sate's eyes flash.

" I guess she does know, Bobby Burns, and
you will be real mean and bad if you. say so any
more. She knows all about heaven, and angels,
and everything."

" Does angels come after all folks that dies ? "

" I dunno ; I guess so ; no, I guess not. Only
good folks "

"Is Susie good?"

" Sometimes she is," said truthful Sate, in
slow, thoughtful tones, a touch of motu-nfulness
in them that might have gone to Susie's heart
had she heard and understood ; " she gave me
the biggest half of a cookie the other night. It
was a good deal the biggest; and she takes care
of me most always ; one day she took off her
shoes and put them on me, because the stones
and the rough ground hurt my feet. They hurt
her feet too; they Weeded, oh ! just awful, but
she wouldn't let me be hurt."

" Why didn't you wear your own shoes?"

"I didn't have any; mine all went to holes*

THE LITTLE PICTURE MAKERS. 243

just great big holes that wouldn't stay on ; it
was before my papa got good, and he didn't buy
me any shoes at all."

" Has your papa got good ? "

"Yes," said Sate confidently, "I guess he has.
My sister Nettie thinks so ; and Susie does too.
He don't drink bad stuff any more. It was
some kind of stuff he drank that made him cross ;
mamma said so ; and the stuff made him feel so
bad that he couldn't buy shoes, nor nothing;
why, sometimes, before Nettie came home, we
didn't have any bread ! He isn't cross to-day,
and he wasn't last night; and he bought me
some new shoes — real pretty ones, and he kissed
me. I love my papa when he is good. Do you
love your papa when he is good ? "

" My papa is always good," said Bobby, with
that air of immense superiority.

"Is he?" asked Sate, wonder and admiration
in her tone. Happy Bobby, to possess a father
who was always good ! " Doesn't he ever drink
any of that bad stuff ? "

"I guess he doesn't!" said indignant Bobby.
"You wouldn't catch him taking a drop of it
for anything. If he was sick and was going to
die if he didn't, he says he wouldn't take it. I

244 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

know all about that ; the name of it is whiskey,
and things; it has lots of names, but that is one
of them. My father is a temperance."

"What is that?"

" It is a man who promises that he won't ever
taste it nor touch it, nor nothing, forever and
ever. And he won't."

"Oh my!" said Sate. "Then of course you
love him all the time. I mean to love my papa,
all the time too. I'm most sure I can. What
makes you make such a big angel ? Susie isn't
big; a little angel could carry her."

"This angel isn't the one who was coming for
Susie ; it is the one who is going to come for
my papa when he dies."

" Oh ! then will you. make the one who will
come for my papa? Make him very big and
strong, for my papa is a strong man, and I don't
want the angel to drop him."

Mr. Decker arose suddenly and went round to
the back part of the house, and cleared his
throat, and coughed, two or three times, and
rubbed the back of his hand across his eyes.
Had he peeped through the fence and caught a
glimpse of the angel whom Bobby made, he
might not have been so strangely touched ; but

THE LITTLE PICTUEE MAKERS. 245

the words of his little girl seemed to choke him,
and his eyes, just then, were too dim to see
angels.

He was very still all the rest of the afternoon.
At the tea table he scarcely spoke, and after-
wards, while Mrs. Decker and Nettie were
mourning over Norm's escape, he too put oa
his coat, and went away down the street.

Mrs. Decker came to the door when she dis-
covered it, and looked after him. He was still
in sight, hut she did not dare to call. As she
looked, she gathered up a corner of her apron
and wiped her eyes. Presently she sat down on
the step where he had been sitting so short a
time before, leaned her elbows on her knees, and
her cheeks on her hands, and thought sad
thoughts.

She felt very much discouraged. On this
first Sunday, after the new room had been made,
and new hopes excited, they had slipped away,
both Norm and her husband, to lounge in the
saloon as usual, and to come home, late at night,
the worse for liquor. She knew all about it !

Hadn't she been through it many times ?

The little gleam of hope which had started
again, under Nettie and Jerry's encouraging

246 UTTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR JTETB.

words and ways, died quite out. Sitting there,
Mrs. Decker made up her mind once more, that
there was no kind of use in working, and strug-
gling, and trying to be somebody. She was the
wife of a drunkard ; and the mother of a drunk-
ard ; Norm would be that, before long. And
her little girls would grow up beggars. It was
almost a pity that Susie had not been killed
when she fell. Why should she want to live to
be a drunkard's daughter, and a drunkard's sis-
ter? If the Heaven she used to hear about
when she was a little girl, was all so, why should
she not long for Susie and Sate to go there ?
Then if she could go away herself and leave all
this misery !

She had hurried with her dishes, she had
hoped that when she was ready to sit down in
the neat room with the new lamp burning
brightly, he would sit with her as he used to do
on Sunday evenings long ago. But here she
was alone, as usual. More than once that big
apron which she had not cared to take off after
she found herself deserted, was made to do
duty as a handkerchief and wipe away bitter
tears.

Meantime, Nettie sat in the pretty church and

THE LITTLE PICTURE MAKERS. 247

looked at the lovely flowers, and listened to the
wonderful singing. Miss Sherrill sang the solo
of something more beautiful than Nettie had
ever even imagined. " Consider the lilies how
they grow." What wonderful words were these
to be sung while looking down at a great bank
of lilies ! It is possible that the singing may
have been more beautiful to Nettie because her
own fingers had arranged the lilies, but it was
in itself enough for any reasonable mortal's ear,
and as it rolled through the church, there was
more than one listener who thought of the
angels, and wondered if their voices could be
sweeter. Nettie's small handkerchief went to
her eyes several times during the anthem ; she
could not have told why she cried, but the
music moved her strangely. Before the anthem
was fairly concluded there was something else
to take her attention. Mrs. Job Smith in whose
seat she sat, gave her arm a vigorous poke with
a sharp elbow, and whispered in a voice which
seemed to Nettie must have been heard all over
the church, " For the land's sake, if there ain't
your pa sitting down there under the gallery ! "
As soon as she dared do so, Nettie turned her
head for one swift look. Mrs. Smith must be

248 LITTLE FISHEES: AND THEIK NETS.

mistaken, but she would take one glance to
assure herself. Certainly that was her father,
sitting in almost the last seat, leaning his head
against one of the pillars, the shabbiuess of his
coat showing plainly in the bright gaslight.
But Nettie did not think of his coat. Her
cheeks grew red, and her eyes filled again with
tears. It was not the music, now ; it was a
strange thrill of satisfaction, and of hope. How
pleasant she had thought it would be to go to
church with her father. It was one of the
things she had planned at Auntie Marshall's ;
how she would perhaps take her father's arm,
being tall for her years, and Auntie Marshall
said he was not a tall man, and walk to church
by his side, and find the hymns for him, and re-
ceive his fatherly smile, and when she handed
him his hat after service, perhaps he would say,
" Thank you, my daughter," as she had heard
Doctor Porter say to his little girl in the seat
just ahead of theirs. Nettie's hungry little heart
had wanted to hear that word applied to herself.
Now all these sweet dreams of hers seemed to
have been ages ago ; actually it felt like years
since she had hoped for such a thing, or dreamed
of seeing her father in church, so swiftly had

THE LITTLE PICTURE MAKERS. 249

the reality crowded out her pretty dreams. Yet
there he sat, listening to the reading.

What Nettie would have done or thought
had she known that Norm and two friends were
at that moment seated in the gallery just over
her father's head, I cannot say. On the whole,
I am glad she did not know it until church was
out. Especially I am glad she did not know
that Norm giggled a good deal, and whispered
more or less, and in various ways so annoyed
the minister that he found it difficult to keep
from speaking to the young men in the gallery.
The fact is, he would have done so, had he not
recognized in one of them his helper of the eve-
ning before, and resolved to bear his troubles pa-
tiently, in the hope that something good would
grow out of this unusual appearance at church.

It would perhaps be hard work to explain
what had brought Norm to church. A fancy
perhaps for seeing how the flowers looked by
this time. A queer feeling that he was slightly
connected with the church service for once in
his life ; a lingering desire to know whether in
the hanging of that tallest wreath, he or the
minister had been right ; they had differed as
to the distance from one arch to the other;

250 LITTLE FISHEES: AND THEIR NETS.

from the gallery he was sure he could tell which
had possessed the truer eye. All these motives
pressed him a little. Then they were singing
when he reached the door, and Rick had said,
" Hallo ! that voice sounds as though it lived
up in the skyi Who is that, do you s'pose V "

Then Norm proud of his knowledge in the
matter, explained that she was the minister's
sister, and they said she could mimic a bird so
you couldn't tell which was which.

" Poh ! " Alf had said ; he didn't believe a
word of that ; he should like to see a woman
who could fool him into thinking that she was a
bird ! but he had added, " Let's go in and hear
her." And as this was what Norm had been
half intending to do ever since he started from
the house, he agreed to do it at once. In they
slipped and half-hid themselves behind the
posts in the gallery, and behaved disreputably
. all the evening, more because they felt shame-
faced about being there at all, and wanted to
keep each other in countenance, than because
they really desired to disturb the service. How-
ever, they heard a great deal.

What do you think was the minister's text
on that evening ? " No drunkard shall inherit

THE LITTLE PICTURE MAKERS. 251

the kingdom of heaven." I shall have to tell
you that when he caught sight of Mr. Decker
half-hidden behind his post and recognized him
as the man who was so fast growing into a drunk-
ard, and as the man who had never been inside
the church since he had been the pastor, he was
sorry that his text and subject were what they
were that evening. He told himself that it was
very unfortunate. That if he had dreamed of
such a thing as having that man for a listener,
he would have told him the story of Jesus as
simply and as earnestly as he could ; and not
have preached a sermon that would seem to the
man as a fling at himself. However, there was
no help for it now; he did not recognize Mr.
Decker until he had announced his text, and
fairly commenced his sermon.

It was a sermon for young people ; it was in-
tended to warn them against the first beginnings
of this great sin which shut heaven away from
the sinner. He need not have been troubled
about not telling the story of Jesus ; there was
a great deal about Jesus in the sermon, as well
as a great deal about the heaven prepared for
those who were Avilling to go. I do not know
that anywhere in the church you could have

252 LITTLE FISHEKS: AND THEIR NETS.

found a more attentive listener than Mr. Decker.
At least one who seemed to listen more earn-
estly; from the moment that the text was re-
peated until the great Bible was closed, he did
not take his eyes from the minister's face. Yet
some of his words he did not hear. Some of the
time Mr. Decker was hearing a little voice, very
sweet, saying : " Make a very big strong angel
to come for my papa when he dies ; my papa is
a strong man and I don't want the angel to
drop him." Poor papa ! as he thought of it, he
had to look straight before him and wink hard
and fast to keep the tears from dropping ; he
had no handkerchief to wipe them away. Think
of an angel coming for him! "I love my papa
when he is good!" the sweet voice had said.
Was he ever good? Then he listened awhile
to the sermon ; heard the vivid description of
some of the possible glories and joys of Heaven.
Would he be likely ever to go there? Little
Sate thought so; she had planned for it that
very afternoon. Dear little Sate who did not
want the angel to drop him.

Now it is possible that if the sermon had
been about drunkards, Mr. Decker would have
been vexed and would not have listened. .He

THE LITTLE PICTURE MAKERS. 253

did not call himself a drunkard ; it is a sad and
at the same time a curious fact that he did not
realize 'how nearly he had reached the point
where the name would apply to him. That he
drank beer, much, and often, and that he was
growing more and more fond of it, and that it
kept him miserably poor, was certainly true,
and there were times when he realized it; but
that he was ever going to be a common drunk-
ard and roll in the gutter, and kick his wife,
and seize his children by the hair, he did not
for a moment believe. But the sermon was by
no means addressed to people who were even so
far on this road as he. It was addressed to boys,
who were just beginning to like the taste of hai-d
cider, and spruce beer, and hop bitters, and all
those harmless (?) drinks which so many boys
were using. It was a plain story of the rapid,
certain, downward journey of those who began
in these simple ways. It was illustrated by
certain facts which Mr. Sherrill had personally
known. And Mr. Decker, as he listened, owned
to himself that he knew facts which would have
proved the same truth.

Then he gave a little start and shrank farther
into the shadow of the pillar. The moment he

254 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

admitted that, he also admitted that he was him-
self in danger. What nonsense that was!
Couldn't he stop drinking the stuff whenever he
liked ? " There is a time," said the minister,
" when this matter is in your own hands. You
have no very great taste for the dangerous
liquors, you are only using them because those
with whom you associate do so. You could give
them up without much effort; but I tell you,
my friends, the time comes, and to many it
comes very early in life, when they are like
slaves bound hand and foot in a habit that they
cannot break, and cannot control." Mr. Decker
heard this, and something, Avhat was it? pressed
the thought home to him just then, that, if he
did not belong to this last-mentioned class,
neither did he to the former. He knew it would
take a good deal of effort for him to give up his
beer ; of course it would ; else he should not be
such a fool as to keep himself and his family in
poverty for the sake of indulging it. What if
he were already a slave, bound hand and foot !
What if the " stuff " which Sate said made him
"cross" had already made him a drunkard:
Perhaps the boys on the street called him so ;
though they rarely saw him stagger; his stagger-

THE LITTLE PICTURE MAKERS. 255

ing was nearly always done under cover of the
night. Still, now that he was dealing honestly'
with himself, he must own that it was less easy
to go without his beer than it used to be.
Since Nettie had come home he had drank less
of it than usual, and by that very means he had
discovered how much it meant to him. "No
drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of heaven!'*
The minister's earnest voice repeated his text
just then. Was he a drunkard? Then what
about the strong angel? Little Sate was to be

o o

disappointed, after all !

Oh ! I am not going to try to tell you all the
thoughts which passed through Joe Decker's
mind that evening. I don't think he could tell
you himself, though he remembers the evening
vividly. He stood up, during the closing hymn,
and waited until the benediction was pro-
nounced, and then he slipped away, swiftly;
Nettie tried to get to him, but she did not suc-
ceed, and she sorrowed over it. He stumbled
along in the darkness, moving almost as un-
steadily as though he had been drinking. The
sky was thick with clouds, and he jostled against
a lady and gentleman as he crossed the street ;
the lady shrank away. "Who is that?" he

256 LITTLE FISHERS: AISD THEIR NETS.

heard her ask; and the answer came to him
distinctly: "Oh! it is old Joe Decker; he is
drunk, I suppose. He generally is at this time
of night."

Yes, there it was ! he \vas already, counted on
the streets as a drunkard. " No drunkard shall
inherit the kingdom of heaven." It was not the
minister's voice this time; yet it seemed to the
poor man's excited brain that some one repeated
those words in his ears. Then he heard again
the sweet soft voice : " Make him very big and
strong, for I don't want the angel to drop him."

CHAPTER XIV.

•4

THE CONCEBT.

TTTITHIN the church wonderful things were
going on. Jerry had caught sight of
Norm as he slipped up the gallery stairs, and
laid his plans accordingly. He whispered to
Nettie during the singing of the closing hymn,
thereby shocking her a little. Jerry did not of-
ten whisper in church.

This was what he said : " Don't you need
those lilies to help trim the room to-morrow
night ? Let's take them home."

The moment the "amen" was spoken, he
dashed out, and was at the stair door as Norm
came down.

" Norm," he said, " won't you help me carry
home that tray ? We want the flowers for some-
thing special to-morrow."

Said Norm, " O bother 1 I can't help tote
that heavy thing through the streets."
257

258 LITTLE riSHEES : AND THEIE NETS.

"What's that?" asked Rick; and when the
explanation was briefly made, he added the little
word of advice which so often turns the scales.

" Ho ! that isn't much to do when you are
going that very road. I'd do as much as that,
any day, for the little chap who gave us such a
tall row." This last was in undertone.

"Well," said Norm, « I don't care ; I'll help ;
but how are we going to get the things out
here?"

" Come inside," answered Jerry ; " we can
wait in the back seat. They will all be gone in
a few minutes, then we can step up and get the
salver."

Once inside the church, the rest followed
easily. Mr. Sherrill who had eyes for all that
was going on, came forward swiftly and held a
cordial hand to Norm.

" Good-evening," he said ; " I am glad to see
you accepted my invitation. How did our work
look by gaslight ? "

" It looked," said Norm, a roguish twinkle in
his eye, " it looked just as I expected it would ;
crooked. That there arch at the left of the pulpit
wants to be hung as much as two inches lower
to match the other."

THE CONCERT. 259

" You don't say so ! " said the minister, in
.good-humored surprise. " Does it appear so
from the gallery ? Are my eyes as crooked as
that ? Let us go up gallery and see if I can dis-
cover it."

So to the gallery they went, Norm clearing
the space with a few bounds, and taking a tri-
umphant station where he could point out the
defect to the minister.

"That is true," Mr. Sherrill said, with hearty
frankness. " You are right and I was wrong.
If I had taken your word last night the wreaths
would have looked better, wouldn't they ? Well,
perhaps wreaths are not the only things which
show crooked when we get higher up and look
down on them. Kh, my friend ?"

Norm laughed a good-humored, rather embar-
rassed laugh. It was remarkable that he should
be up here holding a chatty, almost gay, conver-
sation with the minister. There came over him
the wish that he had behaved himself better
during the service. That he had not whispered
so much, nor nudged Rick's elbow to make him
laugh, just at the moment that the minister's eye
was fixed on them. He had a half-fancy that if
the evening were to be lived over again, he would

260 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

go down below and sit up straight and show this
man that he could behave as well as anybody
if he were a mind to.

Not a word about the laughing and whisper-
ing said the minister. But he said a thing which
startled Norm.

" My sister has a fancy for having the church
adorned with wreaths or strings of asters in con-
trasting colors for next Sabbath ; will you make
an appointment with me to help hang them on
Saturday evening? I'll promise to follow your
eye to the half-inch."

Norm started, flushed, looked into the frank
face and laughed a little, then seeing that the
answer was waited for said : " Why, I don't
care if I do, if you honestly want it."

" I honestly want it," said the minister in
great satisfaction. Then they went downstairs.

Job Smith and his wife were gone.

" I will wait for my brother," said Nettie, and
her heart swelled with pride as she said it.

How nice to have a brother to wait for, just
as Miss Sherrill was doing. At that moment
the " beautiful lady " as Sate and Susie called
her, came to Nettie's side.

" Good-evening," she said pleasantly. " I hope

THE CONCERT. 261

the little girls are well ; I met your brother last
night ; he helped my brother to hang the flow-
era. I see they are upstairs together now, ad-
miring their work. My brother said he was a
very intelligent helper. You do not know how
much I thank you for those flowers. They
helped me to sing to-night.'*

"I thought," said Nettie, raising her great
truthful eyes to the lady's face and speaking with
an earnestness that showed she felt what she
said, " I thought you sang as though the angels
were helping you. I don't think they can sing
any sweeter."

" Thank you," said Miss Sherrill ; she smiled
as she spoke, yet there were tears in her eyes ;
the honest, earnest tribute seemed very unlike a
little girl, and very unlike the usual way of com-
plimenting her wonderful voice. " I saw that
you liked music," she said, " I noticed you while
I was singing. Will you let me give you a
couple of tickets for the concert to-morrow even-
ing ; and will you and your brother come to hear
me sing? I am going to sing something that I
think you will like."

Nettie went home behind the lilies and the
boys, her heart all in a flutter of delight. What

262 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

a wonderful thing had come to her! The con-
cert for which the best singers in town had been
so long practising, and for which the tickets
were fifty cents apiece, arid which she had no
more expected to attend than she had expected
to hear the real angels sing that week, was to
take place to-morrow evening, and she had two
tickets in her pocket ! •

Mrs. Decker was waiting for them, her nose
pressed against the glass ; she started forward to
open the door for the boys, before Nettie could
reach it. There was such a look of relief on her
face when she saw Norm as ought to have gone
to his very heart ; but he did not see it ; he was
busy settling the salver in a safe place.

" Has father come in ? " Nettie asked, as she
followed her mother to the back step, where she
went for the dipper at Norm's call.

" Yes, child, he has, and went straight to bed.
He didn't say two words ; but he wasn't cross ;
and he hadn't drank a drop, I believe."^

" Mother," said Nettie, standing on tiptoe to
reach the tall woman's ear, and speaking in an
awe-stricken whisper, " father was in church ! "

" For the land of pity ! " said Mrs. Becker,
Bpeaking low and solemnly.

THE CONCERT. 263

And all through the next morning's meal,
which was an unusually quiet one, she waited on
her husband with a kind of respectful reverence,
which if he had noticed, might have bewildered
him. It seemed to her that the event of the
evening before had lifted him into a higher world
than hers, and that she could not tell now, what
might happen.

The event of the day was the concert ; all
other plans were set aside for that. At first
Norm scoffed and declared that his ticket might
be used to light the fire with, for all he cared ;
he didn't want to go to one of their " swell "
concerts. But this talk Nettie laughed over
good-naturedly, as though it were intended for
a joke, and continued her planning as to when
to have supper, and just when she and Norm
must start.

In the course of the day, that young man dis-
covered it to be a fine thing to own tickets for
this special concert. Before noon tickets were
at a premium, and several of Norm's fellow-
workmen gayly advised him to make an honest
penny by selling his. During the early morning
it had been delicately hinted by one young fellow
that Norm Decker's tickets were made of tissue

264 LITTtE FISHEBS : AND THEIB NETS.

paper, which was his way of saying, that he did
not believe that Norm had any; but, thanks to
Nettie's thoughtful tact, the tickets were at that
very moment reposing in her brother's pocket,
and he drew them forth in triumph, wanting to
know if anybody saw any tissue paper about
those. Good stiff green pasteboard with the
magic words on them which would admit two
people to what was considered on all sides the
finest entertainment of the sort the town had
ever enjoyed.

" Where did you get 'em, Norm ? Come, tell
us, that's a good fellow. You was never so
green as to go and pay a dollar for two pieces of
pasteboard."

" They are complimentaries," said Norm, toss-
ing off a shaving with a careless air, as though
complimentary tickets to first-class concerts were
every-day affairs with him:

" Complimentary ? My eyes, aren't we big ! "
(I am very sorry that the boys in Norm's shop
used these slang phrases ; but I want to say this
for them : it was because they had never been
taught better. Not one of them had mother or
father who were grieved by such words ; some
of them were so truly good-hearted that I believe

THE CONCERT. 265

if such had been the case, they would never
have used them again ; and I wish the same
might be said of all boys with cultured and care-
ful mothers.)

" How did you get 'em ? Been selling tickets
for the show, or piling chairs, or what?"

"I haven't done a living thing for one of
them," said Norm composedly ; and Ben Halleck
came to his rescue.

" That's so, boys ; or, at least if he had, it
wouldn't done him no good. They don't pay
for this show in any such way. The fellows that
carried around bills were paid in money because
they said they expected seats would be scarce ;
and they didn't sell no tickets around the streets.
Them that wanted them had to go to the book-
store and buy them. Oh, I tell you, it's a big
thing. I wouldn't mind going myself if I could
be complimented through. You see that Sher-
rill girl who lives at the new minister's is a most
amazing singer, and they say everybody wants to
hear her."

By this time Norm's mind was fully made up
that he would go to the concert. It is a pity
Nettie could not have known it. For despite
the cheerful courage with which she received

266 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIB NETS.

Norm's disagreeable statements in the morning,
she was secretly very much afraid that he would
not go. This would have been a great trial to
her, for her little soul was as full of music as
possible ; and the thought of hearing that won-
derful voice so soon again filled her with delight ;
but she was a timid little girl so far as appear-
ing among strangers was concerned, and the idea
of going alone to a concert was not to be thought
of. Her mother proposed Jerry for company,
but he had gone with Job Smith into the country
and was not likely to return until too late. So
Nettie made her little preparations with a
troubled heart. There was something more to
it than simply hearing fine music ; it would be
so like other girls whom she knew, so like the
dreams of home she had indulged in while at
Auntie Marshall's — this going out in the even-
ing attended and cared for by her brother.

Norm ate his dinner in haste, and was silent
and almost gruff ; nobody knows why. I have
often wondered why even well brought up boys,
seem sometimes to like to appear more disagree-
able than at heart they are.

But by six o'clock the much-thought-about
brother appeared, his face pleasant enough.

THE CONCERT. 267

"Well, Nannie," he said, "got your fusses
and fixings all ready ? "

And Nettie with beating heart and laughing
eyes assured him that she would be all ready
in good time, and that she had laid his clean
shirt on his bed, and a clean handkerchief, and
brushed his coat.

" Yes ; and she ironed your shirt with her own
hands," explained his mother, " and the bosom
shines like a glass bottle."

" O bother ! " said Norm. " I don't want a
clean shirt."

But he went to his attic directly after supper
and put on the shirt, and combed his hair, and
rubbed his boots with Jerry's brush which he
went around the back way and borrowed of
Mrs. Job Smith before he came in to supper.

He had noticed how very neat and pretty
Nettie looked as she walked down the church isle
beside him the night before ; and he had also
noticed Jerry's shining boots.

His mother noticed his the moment he came
down stairs. " How nice yon two do look ! "
she said admiringly ; and then the two walked
away well pleased. It was a wonderful concert.
Norm had not known that he was particularly

268 LITTLE FISHERS.' AND THEIR NETS.

fond of music, but he owned to Rick the next
day, that there was something in that Sherrill
girl's voice which almost lifted a fellow out of
his boots.

They had excellent seats ! Nettie learned to
her intense surprise that their tickets called for
reserved seats. She had studied over certain
mysterious numbers on the tickets, but had not
understood them. It appeared also that the
usher was surprised.

" Can't give you any seats," was his greeting
as they presented their tickets. " Everything
is full now except the reserves ; you'll have to
stand in the aisle ; there's a good place under
the gallery. Halloo ! What's this ? Reserved !
Why, bless us, I didn't see these numbers.
Come down this way ; you have as nice seats
as there are in the hall."

It was all delightful. Lorena Barstow and
two others of the Sabbath-school class were a
few seats behind them; Nettie could hear
them whispering and giggling, and for a few
minutes she had an uncomfortable feeling that
they were laughing at her; as I am sorry to say
they were.

But neither this nor anything else troubled

THE CONCEET. 269

her long, for Norm's unsual toilet having taken
much longer than was planned for, they were
really among the late comers ; and in a very lit-
tle while the music began. Oh ! how wonder-
ful it was. Neither Nettie nor Norm had ever
heard really fine concert music before, and even
Norm who did not know that he cared for music,
felt his nerves thrill to his fingers' ends. Then,
when after the first two or three pieces Miss
Sherrill appeared, she was so beautiful and her
voice was so wonderful that Nettie, try as hard
as she did, could not keep the tears from her
foolish happy eyes. I will not venture to say
how much the beautiful silk dress with its long
train, and the mass of soft white lace at her
throat had to do with Miss Sherrill's loveliness,
though I daresay if she had appeared in a twelve-
cent gingham like Nettie's, she might have sang
just as sweetly. Norm, however, did not believe
that.

" Half of it is the fuss and feathers," he de-
clared to Rick, next day, looking wise. And
Rick made a wise answer.

" Well, when you add the handsome voice to
the fuss and feathers, I s'pose they help, but I
don't believe folks would go and rave so much

270 LITTLE FISHEKS: AND THEIR NETS.

just over a blue silk dress, and some gloves, and
things. They all had to match, you see." So
Rick, without knowing it, became a philosopher.
As for Nettie, she told her mother that the
dress was just lovely, and her voice was as sweet
as any angel's could possibly be ; but there was
a look in her eyes which was better than all the
rest ; and that when she sang, " Oh that I had
wings, had wings like a dove ! " she, Nettie,
could not help feeling that they were hidden
about her somewhere, and that before the song
was over, she might unfold them and soar away.

CHAPTER XY.

A WILL AND A WAY.

M 1HE next thing we want to do is to earn

, some money."

This, Jerry said, as he sat on the si4e step
with Nettie, after sunset. They had been hav-
ing a long talk, planning the campaign against
the enemy, which they had made up their minds
should be carried on with vigor. At least, they
had been trying to plan ; but that obstacle
which seems to delight to step into the midst of
so many plans and overturn them, viz. money,
met them at every point. So when Jerry made
that emphatic announcement, Nettie was pre-
pared to agree with him fully ; but none the
less did she turn anxious eyes on him as she
said:

"How can we?_"

"I don't know yet," Jerry said, whistling a

few bars of

Oh, do not be discouraged,
271

272 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

and stopping in the middle of the line to answer,
"But of course there is a way. There was an
old man who worked for my father, who used to
say so often : ' Where there's a will there's a
way,' that after awhile we boys got to calling
him 'Will and Way' for short, you know; his
name was John," and here Jerry stopped to laugh
a little over that method of shortening a name ;
" but it was wonderful to see how true it proved ;
he would make out to do the most surprising
things that even my father thought sometimes
could not be done. We must make a way to
earn some money."

Nettie laughed a little. " Well, I am sure,"
she said, " there is a will in this case ; in fact,
there are two wills ; for you seem to have a large
one, and I know if ever I was determined to do
a thing I am now ; but for all that I can't think
of a possible way to earn a cent."

Now Sarah Ann Smith was at this moment
standing by the kitchen window, looking out on
the two schemers. Her sleeves were rolled
above her elbow, for she was about to set the
sponge for bread ; she had her large neat work
apron tied over her neat dress-up calico; and on
her head was perched the frame out of which,

A WILL AND A WAY. 273

with Nettie's skilful help, and some pieces of
lace from her mother's old treasure bag, she
meant to make herself a bonnet every bit as
pretty as the one worn by Miss Sherrill the Sab-
bath before.

"Talk of keeping things seven years and
they'll come good," said Mrs. Smith, watching
with satisfaction while Nettie tumbled over the
contents of the bag in eager haste and exclaimed
over this and that piece which would be "just
lovely." " I've kept the rubbish in that bag go-
ing on to twenty years, just because the pretty
girls where I used to do clear-starching, gave
them to me. I had no kind of notion what I
should ever do with them ; but they looked
bright and pretty, and I always was a master
hand for bright colors, and so whenever they
would hand out a bit of ribbon or lace, and say,
* Cerinthy, do you want that?' I was sure to say
I did ; and chuck it into this bag ; and now to
think after keeping of them for more than twenty
years, my girl should be planning to make a bon-
net out of them ! Things is queer ! I don't
ever mean to throw away anything. I never
was much at throwing away ; now that's a
fact."

274 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

Now the truth was that Sarah Ann, left to
herself, would as soon have thought of making
a house out of the contents of that bag, as a bon-
net ; but Nettie Decker's deft fingers had a nat-
ural tact for all cunning contrivances in lace and
silk, and her skill in copying what she saw, was
something before which Sarah Ann stood in silent
admiration ; when, therefore, she offered to con-
struct for Sarah Ann, out of the treasures of
that bag, a bonnet which should be both becom-
ing and economical, Sarah Ann's gratitude knew
no bounds. She went that very afternoon to the
milliner's to select her frame, and had it perched
at that moment as I said, on her head, while she
listened to the clear young voices under the win-
dow. She had a great desire to be helpful ; but
money was far from plenty at Job Smith's.

What was it which made her at that moment
think of a bit of news which she had heard while
at the milliner's? Why, nothing more remark-
able than that the color of Nettie Decker's hair
in the fading light was just the same as Mantie
Horton's. But what made her suddenly speak
her bit of news, interrupting the young planners ?
Ah, that Sarah Ann does not know; she only
knows she felt just like saying it, so she said it.

A WILL AND A WAY. 275

" Mantle Horton's folks are all going to move
to the city ; they are selling off lots of things ; I
saw her this afternoon when I was at the mil-
liner's, and she says about the only thing now
that they don't know what to do with is her old
hen and chickens ; a nice lot of chicks as ever
she saw, but of course they can't take them to
the city. My ! I should think they would feel
dreadful lonesome without chickens, nor pigs,
nor nothing! We might have some chickens as
well as not, if we only had a place to keep 'em ;
enough scrapings come from the table every day,
to feed 'em, most."

Before this sentence was concluded, Jerry had
turned and given Nettie a sudden look as if to
ask if she saw what he did ; then he whistled a
low strain which had in it a note of triumph ;
and the moment Sarah Ann paused for breath
he asked : "Where do the Hortons live?"

" Why, out on the pike about a mile ; that
nice white house set back from the road a piece ;
don't you know? It is just a pleasant walk out
there."

Then Sarah Ann tinned away to attend to her
bread, and as she did so her somewhat homely
face was lighted by a smile; for an idea had

276 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

just dawned upon her, and she chuckled over it :
"I shouldn't wonder if those young things would
go into business; he's got contrivance enough to
make a coop, any day, and mother would let
them have the scrapings, and welcome."

Sarah Ann was right ; though Nettie, unused
to country ways and plans, did not think of such
a thing, Jerry did. The next morning he was
up, even before the sun ; in fact that luminary
peeped at him just as he was turning into the
long carriage drive which led finally to the Hor-
ton barnyard. There a beautiful sight met his
eyes ; a white and yellow topknot mother, and
eight or ten fluffy chickens scampering about her.
" They are nice and plump," said Jerry to him-
self ; " I'm afraid I haven't money enough to buy
them ; but then, there is a great deal of risk in
raising a brood of chickens like these ; perhaps
he will sell them cheap."

Farmer Horton was an early riser, and was
busy about his stables when Jerry reached there.
He was anxious to get rid of all his live stock,
and be away as soon as possible, and here was a
customer anxious to buy ; so in much less time
than Jerry had supposed it would take, the hen
and chickens changed owners and much whis-

A WILL AND A WAT. 277

tling was done by the new owner as he walked
rapidly back to town to build a house for his
family.

Mrs. Smith had been taken into confidence ;
so indeed had Job, before the purchase was made ;
but the whole thing was to be a profound sur-
prise to Nettie. Therefore, she saw little of him
that day, and I will not deny was a trifle hurt
because he kept himself so busy about something
which he did not share with her. But I want
you to imagine, if you can, her surprise the next
morning when just as she was ready to set the
potatoes to frying, she heard Jerry's eager voice
calling her to come and see his house.

" See what ? " asked Nettie, appearing in the
doorway, coffee pot in hand.

"A new house. I built it yesterday, and
rented it ; the family moved in last night. That
is the reason I was so busy. I had to go
out and help move them ; and I must say they
were as ill-behaved a set as I ever had anything
to do with. The mother is the Grossest party I
ever saw ; and she has no government whatever ;
her children scurry around just where they
please."

" What are you talking about ? " said aston-

278 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

ished Nettie, her face growing more and more
bewildered as he continued his merry descrip-
tion.

" Come out and see. It is a new house, I tell
you ; I built it yesterday ; that is the reason I
did not come to help yon about the bonnet.
Didn't you miss me? Sarah Ann thinks it is
actually nicer than the one Miss Sherrill wore."
And he broke into a merry laugh, checking him-
self to urge Nettie once more to come out and
see his treasures.

" Well," said Nettie, u wait until I cover the
potatoes, and set the teakettle off." This done
she went in haste and eagerness to discover what
was taking place behind Job Smith's barn. A
hen and chickens ! Beautiful little yellow dar-
lings, racing about as though they were crazy ;
and a speckled mother clucking after them in a
dignified way, pretending to have authority over
them, when one could see at a glance that they
did exactly as they pleased.

Then came a storm of questions. " Where ?
and When ? and Why ? "

" It is a stock company concern," exclaimed
Jerry, his merry eyes dancing with pleasure.
Nettie was fully as astonished and pleased as he

A WILL AND A WAY. 279

had hoped. " Don't you know I told you yester-
day we must plan a way to earn money ? This
is one way, planned for 'us. We own Mrs.
Biddy ; every feather on her knot, of which she
is so proud, belongs to us, and she must not only
earn her own living and that of her children, but
bring us in a nice profit besides. Those are
plump little fellows; I can imagine them making
lovely pot pies for some one who is willing to
pay a good price for them. Cannot you ? "

" Poor little chickens," said Nettie in such a
mournful tone that Jerry went off into shouts of
laughter. He was a humane boy, but he could
not help thinking it very funny that anybody
should sigh over the thought of a chicken pot
pie.

"Oh, I know they are to eat," Nettie said,
smiling in answer to his laughter, " and I know
how to make nice crust for pot pie ; but for all
that, I cannot help feeling sort of sorry for the
pretty fluffy chickens. Are you going to fat
them all, to eat ; or raise some of them to lay
eggs?"

" I don't know what we are going to do, yet,"
Jerry said with pointed emphasis on the we.
"You see, we have not had time to consult ; this

280 LITTLE FJSHEES : AND THEIR NETS.

is a company concern, I told you. What do you
think about it?"

Nettie's cheeks began to grow a deep pink ;
she looked down at the hurrying chickens with
a grave face for a moment, then said gently :
" You know, Jerry, I haven't any money to help
buy the chickens, and I cannot help own what I
do not help buy ; they are your chickens, but I
shall like to watch them and help you plan about
them."

Jerry sat down on an old nail keg, crossed
one foot over the other, and clasped his hands
over his knees, as Job Smith was fond of doing,
and prepared for argument :

" Now, see here, Nettie Decker, let us under-
stand each other once for all ; I thought we had
gone into partnership in this whole business ;
that we were to fight that old fiend Rum, in
every possible way we could ; and were to help
each other plan, and work all the time, and in all
ways we possibly could. Now if you are tired
of me and want to work alone, why, I mustn't
force myself upon you."

"O, Jerry!" came in a reproachful murmur
from Nettie, whose cheeks were now flaming.

" Well, what is a fellow to do ? You see you

A WILL AND A WAY. 281

hurt ray feelings worse than old Mother Topknot
did this morning when she pecked me ; I want
to belong, and I mean to ; but all that kind of
talk about helping to buy these half-dozen little
puff-balls is all nonsense, and a girl of your
sense ought to be ashamed of it."

Said Nettie, "O, Jerry, I smell the potatoes;
they are scorching!" and she ran away. Jerry
looked after her a moment, as though astonished
at the sudden change of subject, then laughed,
and rising slowly from the nail-keg addressed
himself to the hen.

" Now, Mother Topknot, I want you to un-
derstand that you belong to the firm ; that little
woman who was just here is your mistress, and
if you peck her and scratch her as you did me,
this morning, it will be the worse for you. You
are just like some people I have seen ; haven't
sense enough to know who is your best friend ;
why, there is no end to the nice little bits she
will contrive for you and your children, if you
\>ehave yourself ; for that matter, I suspect she
would do it whether you behaved yourself or
not ; but that part it is quite as well you should
not understand. I want you to bring these chil-
dren up to take care of themselves, just as soon

282 LITTLE FISHEES : AND THEIR NETS.

as you can ; and then you are to give your at-
tention to laying a nice fresh egg every morn-
ing; and the sooner you begin, the better we
shall like it." Then he went in to breakfast.

There was no need to say anything mor«»
about the partnership. Nettie seemed to come,
to the conclusion that she must be ashamed
of herself or her pride in the matter ; and after
a very short time grew accustomed to hearing
Jerry talk about "Our chicks," and dropped
into the fashion of caring for and planning about
them. None the less was she i-esolved to find
some way of earning a little money for her share
of the stock company. Curiously enough it was
Susie and little Sate who helped again. They
came in one morning, with their hands full of the
lovely field daisies. The moment Nettie looked
at the two little faces, she knew that a dispute
of some sort was in progi-ess. Susie's lips were
curved with that air of superior wisdom, not to
say scorn, which she knew how to assume ; and
little Sate's eyes were full of the half-grieved but
wholly positive look which they could wear on
occasion.

"What is it?" Nettie asked, stopping on her
way to the cellar with a nice little pat of butter

A WILL AND A WAT. 283

which she was saving for her father's supper.
Butter was a luxury which she had decided the
children at least, herself included, must not ex-
pect every day.

"Why," said Susie, her eyes flashing her con-
tempt of the whole thing, "she says these are
folks; old women with caps, and eyes, and
noses, and everything; she says they look at
her, and some of them are pleasant, and some
are cross. She is too silly for anything. They
don't look the least bit in the word like old
women. I told her so, fifty-eleven times, and
she keeps saying it ! "

Nettie held out her hand for the bunch of
daisies, looked at them carefully, and laughed.

" Can't you see them ? " was little Sate's eager
question. " They are just as plain ! Don't you
see them a little bit of a speck, Nannie ? "

" Of course she doesn't ! " said scornful Susie.
" Nobody but a silly baby like you would think
of such a thing."

" I don't know," said Nettie, still smiling, " I
don't think I see them as plain as Sate does, but
maybe we can, after awhile ; wait till I get my
butter put away, and I'll put on my spectacles
and see what I can find."

284 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

So the two waited, Susie incredulous and dis-
gusted, Sate with a hopeful light in her eyes,
which made Nettie very anxious to find the old
ladies.^ On her way up stairs she felt in her
pocket for the pencil Jerry had sharpened with
such care the evening before ; yes, it was there,
and the point was safe. Jerry had made a neat
little tube of soft wood for it to slip into, and
so protect itself.

" Now, let us look for the old lady," she said,
taking a daisy in hand and retiring to the closet
window for inspection ; it was the work of a
moment for her fingers which often ached for
such work, to fashion a pair of eyes, a nose, and
a mouth ; and then to turn down the white
petals for a cap border, leaving two under the
chin for strings !

" Does your old lady look anything like that ? "
she questioned, as she came out from her hiding
place. Little Sate looked, and clasped her
hands in an ecstacy of delight : " Look, Susie,
look, quick! there she is, just as plain! O
Nannie ! I'm so glad you found her."

" Humph ! " said Susie, " she made her with a
pencil; she wasn't there at all; and there
couldn't nobody have found her. So ! "

A WILL AND A WAT. 285

And to this day, I suppose it would not be
possible to make Susie Decker believe that the
spirits of beautiful old ladies hid in the daisies I
Some people cannot see things, you know, show
them as much as you may.

But Nettie was charmed with the little old
woman. She left the potatoes waiting to be
washed, and sat down on the steps with eager
little Sate, and made old lady after old lady.
Some with spectacles, and some without. Some
with smooth hair drawn quietly back from quiet
foreheads, some with the old-fashioned puffs and
curls which she had seen in old, old pictures of
" truly " grandmothers. What fun they had !
The potatoes came near being forgotten entirely.
It was the faithful old clock in Mrs. Smith's
kitchen which finally clanged out the hour and
made Nettie rise in haste, scattering old ladies
right and left. But little Sate gathered them,
every one, holding them with as careful hand as

%

though she feared a rough touch would really
hurt their feelings, and went out to hunt Susie
and soothe her ruffled dignity. She did not find
Susie ; that young woman was helping Jerry nail
laths on the chicken coop ; but she found her
sweet-faced Sabbath-school teacher, who was

286 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIE NETS.

sure to stop and kiss the child, whenever she
passed. To her, Sate at once showed the sweet
old women. "Nannie found them," she ex-
plained ; " Susie could not see them at all, and
she kept saying they were not there ; but Nan-
nie said she would make them look plainer so
Susie could see, and now Susie thinks she made
them out of a pencil ; but they were there, be-
fore, I saw them."

" Oh, you quaint little darling ! " said Miss
Sherrill, -kissing her again. "And so your sis-
ter Nettie made them plainer for you. I must
say she has done it with a skilful hand. Sate
dear, would you give one little old woman to
me ? Just one ; this dear old face with puffs, I
want her very much."

So Sate gazed at her with wistful, tender eyes,
kissed her tenderly, and let Miss Sherrill carry
her away.

She carried her straight to the minister's
study, and laid her on the open page of a great
black commentary which he was studying.
"Did you ever see anything so cunning? That
little darling of a Sate says Nannie * found ' her ;
she doesn't seem to think it was made, but sim-
ply developed, you know, so that commoner

A WILL AND A WAY. 287

eyes than hers could see it ; that child was born
for a poet, or an artist, I don't know which.
Tremayne, I'm going to take this down to the
flower committee, and get them to invite Net-
tie to make some bouquets of dear old grand-
mothers, and let little Sate come to the flower
party and sell them. Won't that be lovely?
Every gentleman there will want a bouquet of
the nice old ladies in caps, and spectacles ; we
will make it the fashion ; then they will sell
beautifully, and the little merchant shall go
shares on the proceeds, for the sake of her artist
sister."

" It is a good idea," said the minister. " I in-
fer from what that handsome boy Jerry has
told me, that they have some scheme on hand
which requires money. I am very much inter-
ested in those young people, my dear. I wish
you would keep a watch on them, and lend a
helping hand when you can."

CHAPTER XVI.

AN OEDEAL.

was the way it came about that little
-*- Sate not only, but Susie and Nettie, went
to the flower party.

They had not expected to do any such thing.
The little girls, who were not used to going any
where, had paid no attention to the announce-
ments on Sunday, and Nettie had heard as one
with whom such things had nothing in com-
mon. Her treatment in the Sabbath-school was
not such as to make her long for the compan-
ionship of the girls of her age, and by this time
she knew that her dress at the flower party
would be sure to command more attention than
was pleasant ; so she had planned as a matter of
course to stay away.

But the little old ladies in their caps and spec-
tacles springing into active life, put a new face
on the matter. Certainly no more astonished
288

AN ORDEAL. 289

young person can be imagined than Nettie
Decker was, the morning Miss Sherrill called on
her, the one daisy she had begged still carefully
preserved, and proposed her plan of partnership
in the flower party.

" It will add ever so much to the fun," she
explained, "besides bringing you a nice little
sum for your spending money."

Did Miss Sherrill have any idea how far that
argument would reach just now, Nettie won-
dered.

" We can dress the little girls in daisies," con-
tinued their teacher. " Little Sate will look like
a flower herself, with daisies wreathed about her
dress and hair."

" Little Sate will be afraid, I think," Nettie
objected. " She is very timid, and not used to
seeing many people."

" But with Susie she will not mind, will she?
Susie has assurance enough to take her through
anything. Oh, I wonder if little Sate would not
recite a verse about the daisy grandmothers?
I have such a cunning one for her. May I teach
her, Mrs. Decker, and see if I can get her to
learn it ? "

Mrs. Decker's consent was very easy to gain ;

290 LITTLE FISHEES: AND THEIB NETS.

indeed it had been freely given in Mrs. Decker's
heart before it was asked . For Miss Sherrill had
not been in the room five minutes before she
had said : " Your son, Norman, I believe his
name is, has promised to help my brother with
the church flowers this evening. My brother
says he is an excellent helper ; his eye is.so true ;
they had quite a laugh together, last week. It
seems one of the wreaths was not hung plumb ;
your son and my brother had an argument about
it, and it was finally left as my brother had
placed it, but was out of line several inches. He
was obliged to admit that if he had followed
Norman's direction it would have looked much
better." After that, it would have been hard
for Miss Sherrill to have asked a favor which
Mrs. Decker would not grant if she could. She
saw through it all ; these people were in league
with Nettie, to try to save her boy. What
wasn't she ready to do at their bidding !

There was but one thing about which she was
positive. The little girls could not go without
Nettie ; they talked it over in the evening, after
Miss Sherrill was gone. Nettie looked dis-
tressed. She liked to please Miss Sherrill ; she
was willing to make many grandmothers ; she

AN ORDEAL. 291

would help to put the little girls in as dainty
attire as possible, but she did not want to go to
the flower festival. She planned various ways ;
Jerry would take them down, or Norm ; per-
haps even he would go with them ; surely
mother would be willing to have them go with
Norm. Miss Sherrill would look after them
carefully, and they would come home at eight
o'clock ; before they began to grow very sleepy.
But no, Mrs. Decker was resolved ; she could
not let them go unless Nettie would go with
them and bring them home. "I let one child
run the streets," she said with a heavy sigh,
"and I have lived to most wish he had died
when he was a baby, before I did it ; and I said
then I would never let another one go out of my
sight as long as I had control ; I can't go ; but
I would just as soon they would be with you as
with me ; and unless you go, they can't stir a
step, and that's the whole of it." Mrs. Decker
was a very determined woman when she set out
to be ; and Nettie looked the picture of dismay.
It did not seem possible to her to go to a flower
party ; and on the other hand it seemed really
dreadful to thwart Miss Sherrill. Jerry sat lis-
tening, saying little, but the word he put in now

292 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

and then, was on Mrs. Decker's side ; he owned
to himself that he never so entirely approved of
her as at that moment. He wanted Nettie to
go to the flower party.

"But I have nothing to wear?" said Nettie,
blushing, and almost weeping.

" Nothing to wear ! " repeated Mrs. Decker

•

in honest astonishment. " Why, what do you
wear on Sundays, I should like to know ? I'm
sure you look as neat and nice as any girl I ever
saw, in your gingham. I was watching you last
Sunday and thinking how pretty it was."

"Yes; but, mother, they all wear white at
such places ; and I cut up my white dress, you
know, for the little girls ; it was rather short for
me anyway; brft I should feel queer in any other
color."

"O, well," said Mrs. Decker in some irrita-
tion, " if they go to such places to show their
clothes, why, I suppose you must stay at home,
if you have none that you want to show. I
thought, being it was a church, it didn't matter,
so you were neat and clean ; but churches are
like everything else, it seems, places for show."

Jerry looked grave disapproval at Nettie, but
she felt injured and could have cried. Was it

AN ORDEAL. 293

fair to accuse her of going to church to show her
clothes, or of being over-particular, when she
went every Sunday in a blue and white gingham
such as no other girl in her class would wear
even to school ? This was not church, it was a
party. It was hard that she must be blamed
for pride, when she was only too glad to stay at
home from it.

"I can't go in my blue dress, and that is the
whole of it," she said at last, a good deal of
decision in her voice.

" Very well," said Mrs Decker. " Then we'll
say no more about it ; as for the little girls
going without you, they sha'n't do it. When I
set my foot down, it's down"

Jerry instinctively looked down at her foot
as she spoke. It was a good-sized one, and
looked as though it could set firmly on any ques-
tion on which it was put. His heart began to
fail him; the flower party and certain things
which he hoped to accomplish thereby, were
fading. He took refuge with Mrs. Smith to
hide his disappointment, and also to learn wis-
dom about this matter of dress.

"Do clothes make such a very great differ-
ence to girls?" was his first question.

294 LITTLE FISHEKS: AND THEIR NETS.

"Difference?" said Mrs. Smith rubbing a lit-
tle more flour on her hands, and plunging them
again into the sticky mass she was kneading.

" Yes'm. They seem to think of clothes the
first thing, when there is any place to go to ;
boys aren't that way. I don't believe a boy
knows whether his coat ought to be brown or
green. What makes the difference ? "

Mrs. Smith laughed a little. "Well," she
said reflectively, " there is a difference, now
that's a fact. I noticed it time and again when
I was living with Mrs. Jennison. Dick would
go off with whatever he happened to have on;
and Florence was always in a flutter as to
whether she looked as well as the rest. I've
heard folks say that it is the fault of the
mothers, because they make such a fuss over the
girls' clothes, and keep rigging them up in some-
thing bright, just to make 'em look pretty, till
they succeed in making them think there isn't
anything quite so important in life as what they
wear on their backs. It's all wrong, I believe.
But then, Nettie ain't one of that kind. She
hasn't had any mother to perk her up and make
her vain. I shouldn't think she would be one
to care about clothes much.'*

AN OBDEAL. 295

" She doesn't," said Jerry firmly. " I don't
think she would care if other folks didn't. The
girls in her class act hatefully to her; they don't
speak, if they can help it. I suppose it's clothes;
I don't know what else ; they are always rigged
out like hollyhocks or tulips ; they make fun of
her, I guess ; and that isn't very pleasant."

" Is that the reason she won't go to the flower
show next week ? "

"Yes'm, that's the reason. All the girls are
going to dress in white ; I suppose she thinks
she will look queerly, and be talked about. J3ut
I don't understand it. Seems to me if all the
boys were going to wear blue coats, and I knew
it, I'd just as soon wear my gray one if gray was
respectable."

" She ought to have a white dress, now that's
a fact," said Mrs. Smith with energy, patting
her brown loaf, and tucking it down into the tin
in a skilful way. " It isn't much for a girl like
her to want ; if her father was the kind of man
he ought to be, she might have a white dress for
best, as well as not ; I've no patience with him."

" Her father hasn't drank a drop this week,"
said Jerry.

" Hasn't ; well, I'm glad of it ; but I'm think-

296 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

ing of what he has done, and what he will go
and do, as likely as not, next week ; they might
be as forehanded as any folks I know of, if he
was what he ought to be ; there isn't a better
workman in the town. Well, you don't care
much about the flower party, I suppose ? "

" I don't now," said Jerry, wearily. " "When
I thought the little girls were going, I had a plan.
Sate is such a little thing, she would be sure to
be half-asleep by eight o'clock ; and I was going
to coax Norm to' come for her, and we carry her
home between us. Norm won't go to a flower
party, out and out ; but he is good-natured, and
was beginning to think a great deal of Sate ;
then I thought Mr. SheiTill would speak to him.
The more we can get Norm to feeling he be-
longs in such places, the less he will feel. like be-
longing to the corner groceries, and the streets."

" I see," said Mrs; Smith admiringly. " Well,
I do say I didn't think Nettie was the kind of
girl to put a white dress between her chances
of helping folks. Sarah Ann thinks she's a real
true Christian ; but Satan does seem to be into
the clothes business from beginning to end."

" I don't suppose it is any easier for a Chris-
tian to be laughed at and slighted, than it is for

AN ORDEAL. 297

other people," said Jerry, inclined to resent the
idea that Nettie was not showing the right spirit ;
although in his heart he was disappointed in her
for caring so much about the color of her dress.

" Well, I don't know about that," said Mrs.
Smith, stopping in the act of tucking her bread
under the blankets, to look full at Jerry, " why,
they even made fun of the Lord Jesus Christ ;
dressed him up in purple, like a king, and
mocked at him ! When it comes to remember-
ing that, it would seem as if any common Chris-
tian might be almost glad of a chance to be made
fun of, just to stand in the same lot with him."

This was a new thought to Jerry. He studied
it for awhile in silence. Now it so happened
that neither Mrs. Smith nor Jerry remembered
certain facts ; one was that Mrs. Smith's kitchen
window was in a line with Mrs. Decker's bed-
room window, where Nettie had gone to sit .
while she mended Norm's shirt ; the other was
that a gentle breeze was blowing, which brought
their words distinctly to Nettie's ears. At first
she had not noticed the talk, busy with her own
thoughts, then she heard her name, and paused
needle in hand, to wonder what was being said
about her. Then, coming to her senses, she de*

298 LITTLE FISHEKS: AND THEIE NETS.

termined to leave the room ; but her mother,
for convenience, had pushed her ironing table
against the bedroom door, and then had gone to
the yard in search of chips ; Nettie was a pris-
oner; she tried to push the table by pushing
against the door, but the floor was uneven, and
the table would not move ; meantime the con-
versation going on across the alleyway, came
distinctly to her. No use to cough, they were
too much interested to hear her. By and by she
grew so interested as to forget that the words
were not intended for her to hear. There were
more questions involved in this matter of dress
than she had thought about. Her cheeks began to
burn a little with the thought that her neighbor
had been planning help for Norm, which she
was blocking because she had no white dress !
This was an astonishment ! She had not known
she was proud. In fact, she had thought herself
very humble, and worthy of commendation be-
cause she went Sabbath after Sabbath to the
school in the same blue and white dress, not so
fresh now by a great deal as when she first
came home.

When Mrs. Smith reached the sentence which
told of the Lord Jesus being robed in purple,

AN ORDEAL. 299

and crowned with thorns, and mocked, two great
tears fell on Norm's shirt sleeve.

It was a very gentle little girl who moved
about the kitchen getting early tea ; Mrs. Decker
glanced at her from time to time in a bewildered
way. The sort of girl with whom she was best
acquainted would have slammed things about a
little ; both because she had not clothes to wear
like other children, and because she had been
blamed for not wanting to do what was expected
of her. But Nettie's face had no trace of anger,
her movements were gentleness itself ; her voice
when she spoke was low and sweet : " Mother, I
will take the little girls, if you will let them go."

Mrs. Decker drew a relieved sigh. " I'd like
them to go because she asked to have them ; and
I can see plain enough she is trying to get hold
of Norm ; BO is he; that's what helping with the
flowers means ; and there ain't anything I ain't
willing to do to help, only I couldn't let the little
girls go without you ; they'd be scared to death,
and it wouldn't look right. I'm sorry enough
you ain't got suitable clothes ; if I could help it,
you should have as good as the best of them."

" Never mind," said Nettie, " I don't think I
care anything about the dress now." She was

300 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

thinking of that crown of thorns. So when Miss
Sherrill called the way was plain and little Sate
ready to be taught anything she would teach
her.

They went away down to the pond under the
clump of trees which formed such a pretty shade ;
and there Sate's slow sweet voice said over the
lines as they were told to her, putting in many
questions which the words suggested. " He makes
the flowTers blow," she repeated with thoughtful
face, then : " What did He make them for?"

" I think it was because He loved them ; and
He likes to give you and me sweet and pleasant
things to look at."

" Does He love flowers ? "

"I think so, darling."

" And birds ? See the birds ! " For at that
moment two beauties standing on the edge of
their nest, looked down into the clear water, and
seeing themselves reflected in its smoothness be-
gan to talk in low sweet chirps to their shadows.

" Oh, yes, He loves the birds, I am sure ; think
how many different kinds He has made, and how
beautiful they are. Then He has given them
sweet voices, and they are thanking Him as well
as they know how, for all his goodness. Listen."

AN OEDEAL. 301

Sure enough, one of the little birds hopped
back a trifle, balanced himself well on the nest,
and, putting up his little throat, trilled a lovely
song.

" What does he say ? " asked Sate, watching
him intently.

" Oh, I don't know," said Miss Sherrill, with
a little laugh. Sate was taxing her powers
rather too much. " But God understands, you
know ; and I am sure the words are very sweet
to him."

Sate reflected over this for a minute, then
went back to the flowers.

"What made Him put the colors on them?
Does He like to see pretty colors, do you sink?
Which color does He like just the very bestest
of all?"

"O you darling! I don't know that, either.
Perhaps, crimson ; or, no, I think He must like
pure white ones a little the best. But He likes
little human flowers the best of all. Little white
flowers with souls. Do you know what I mean,
darling ? White hearts are given to the little
children who try all the time to do right, because
they love Jesus, and want to please him."

" Sate wants to," said the little girl earnestly.

302 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIE NETS.

" Sate loves Jesus ; and she would like to kiss
him."

"I do not know but you shall, some day.
Now shall we take another line of the hymn ? "
continued her teacher.

" I tried to teach her," explained Miss Sherrill
to her brother. "But I think, after all, she
taught me the most. She is the dearest little
thing, and asks the strangest questions ! When
I look at her grave, sweet face, and hear her slow,
sweet voice making wise answers, and asking
wise questions, a sort of baby wisdom, you
know, I can only repeat over and over the
words :

" ' Of such is the kingdom of heaven.'

" To-day I told her the story of Jesus taking
the little children up in his arms and blessing
them. She listened with that thoughtful look in
her eyes which is so wonderful, then suddenly
she held up her pretty arms and said in the
most coaxing tones :

" c Take little Sate to Him, and let Him bless
her, yight away.'

"Tremaine, I could hardly keep back the
tears. Do you think He can be going to call
her soon ? "

AX OEDEAL. 303

"Not necessarily at all. There is no reason
why a little child should not live very close to
Him on earth. I hope that little girl has a great
work to do for Christ in this world. She has a
very sweet face."

CHAPTER XVH.

THE FLOWEB PAKTT.

T DARE say some of yon think Nettie
Decker was a very silly girl to care so
much because her dress was a blue and white
gingham instead of being all white.

You .have told your friend Katie about the
story and asked her if she didn't think it was
real silly to make such an ado over clothes ; you
have said you were sure you would just as soon
wear a blue gingham as not if it was clean and
neat. But now let me venture a hint. I
shouldn't be surprised if that was because you
never do have to go to places differently dressed
from all the others. Because if you did, you
would know that it was something -of a trial.
Oh ! I don't say it is the hardest thing in the
world ; or that one is all ready to die as a mar-
tyr who does it ; but what I do say is, that it
takes a little moral courage ; and, for one, I am
3°4

THE FLOWER PARTY. 305

not surprised that Nettie looked very sober
about it when the afternoon came.

It took her a good while to dress ; not that
there was so much to be done, but she stopped
to think. "With her hair in her neck, still un-
braided, she pinned a lovely pink rose at her
breast just to see how pretty it would look for a
minute. Miss Sherrill had left it for her to
wear ; but she did not intend to wear it, because
she thought it would not match well with
her gingham dress. Just here, I don't mind
owning that I think her silly ; because I be-
lieve that sweet flowers go with sweet pure
young faces, whether the dress is of gingham
or silk.

But Nettie looked grave, as I said, and wished
it was over ; and tried to plan for the hundredth
time, how it would all be. The girls, Cecelia
Lester and Lorena Barstow and the rest of
them, would be out in their elegant toilets, and
would look at her so! That Ermina Farley
would be there; she had seen her but once, on
the first Sunday, and liked her face and her ways
a little better than the others ; but she had been
away since then. Jerry said she was back, how-
ever, and Mrs. Smith said they were the richest

306 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

folks in town ; and of course Ermina would be
elegantly dressed at the flower party.

Well, she did not care. She was willing to
have them all dressed beautifully ; she was not
mean enough to want them to wear gingham
dresses, if only they would not make fun of hers.
Oh ! if she could only stay at home, and help
iron, and get supper, and fry some potatoes
nicely for father, how happy she would be. Then
she sighed again, and set about braiding her
hair. She meant to go, but she could not help
being sorry for herself to think it must be done$
and she spent a great deal of trouble in trying
to plan just how hateful it would all be ; how
the girls would look, and whisper, and giggle ;
and how her cheeks would burn. Oh dear!

Then she found it was late, and had to make
her fingers fly, and to rush about the little wood-
house chamber which was still her room, in a
way which made Sarah Ann say to her mother
with a significant nod, " I guess she's woke up
and gone at it, poor thing ! " Yes, she had ;
and was down in fifteen minutes more.

Oh! but didn't the little girls look pretty!
Nettie forgot her trouble for a few minutes, in
admiring them when she had put the last touches

THE FLOWER PAETY. 307

to their toilet. Susie was to be in a tableau
where she would need a dolly, and Miss Sherrill
had furnished one for the occasion. A lovely
dolly with real hair, and blue eyes, and a bright
blue sash to match them ; and when Susie got it
in her arms, there came such a sweet, softened
look over her face that Nettie hardly knew her.
The sturdy voice, too, which was so apt to be
fierce, softened and took a motherly tone ; the
dolly was certainly educating Susie. Little Sate
looked on, interested, pleased, but without the
slightest shade of envy. She wanted no dolly ;
or, if she did, there was a little black-faced,
worn, rag one reposing at this moment in the
trundle bed where little Sale's own head would
rest at night ; kissed, and caressed, and petted,
and told to be good until mamma came back ;
this dolly had all of Sale's warm heart. For
the rest, the grave little old women in caps and
spectacles, which wound about her dress, crept
up in bunches on her shoulders, lay in nestling
heaps at her breast, filled all Sate's thoughts.
She seemed to have become a little old woman
herself, so serious and womanly was her face.
Nettie took a hand of each, and they went to
the flower festival. There was to be a five

308 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

o'clock tea for all the elderly people of the
church, and the tables, some of them, were set
in Mr. Eastman's grounds, which adjoined the
church. When Nettie entered these grounds
she found a company of girls several years
younger than herself, helping to decorate the
tables with flowers ; at least that was their work,
but as Nettie appeared at the south gate, a queer
little object pushed in at the west side. A child
not more than six years old, with a clean face,
and carefully combed hair, but dressed in a plain
dark calico ; and her pretty pink toes were with-
out shoes or stockings.

I am not sure that if a little wolf had suddenly
appeared before them, it could have caused
more exclamations of astonishment and dismay.

" Only look at that child ! " « The idea ! "
" Just to think of such a thing ! " were a few of
the exclamations with which the air was thick.
At last, one bolder than the rest, stepped to-
wards her : " Little girl, where did you come
from ? What in the world do you want here?"

Startled by the many eyes and the sharp
tones, the small new-comer hid her face behind
an immense bunch of glowing hollyhocks, which
she held in her hand, and said not a word.

THE FLOWER PARTY. 309

Then the chorus of voices became more eager :

" Do look at her hollyhocks ! Did ever any-
body see such a queer little fright ! Girls, I do
believe she has come to the party." Then the
one who had spoken before, tried again : " See
here, child, whoever you are, you must go right
straight home ; this is no place for you. I won-
der what your mother was about — if you have
one — to let you run away barefooted, and
looking like a fright."

Now the barefooted maiden was thoroughly
frightened, and sobbed outright. It was pre-
cisely what Nettie Decker needed to give her
courage. When she came in at the gate, she
had felt like shrinking away from all eyes;
now she darted an indignant glance at the
speaker, and moved quickly toward the crying
child, Susie and Sate following close behind.

" Don't cry, little girl," she said in the gen-
tlest tones, stooping and putting an arm ten-
derly around the trembling form ; " you haven't
done anything wrong ; Miss Sherrill will be
here soon, and she will make it all right."

Thus "comforted, the tears ceased, and the
small new-comer allowed her hand to be taken ;
while Susie came around to her other side, and

310 LITTLE FISHERS ! AND THEIE NETS.

scowled fiercely, as though to say : " I'll protect
this girl myself; let's see you touch her now!"

A burst of laughter greeted Nettie as soon
as she had time to give heed to it. Others had
joined the groups, among them Lorena Bar-
stow and Irene Lewis. "What's all this?"
asked Irene.

"O, nothing," said one; "only that Decker
girl's sister, or cousin, or something has just
arrived from Cork, and come in search of her.
Lorena Barstow, did you ever see such a queer-
looking fright ?"

" I don't see but they look a good deal alike,"
said Lorena, tossing her curls ; " I'm sure their
dresses correspond ; is she a sister ? "

"Why, no," answered one of the smaller
girls; "those two cunning little things in white
are Nettie Decker's sisters ; I think they are
real sweet."

"Oh! " said Lorena, giving them a disagree-
able stare, " in white, are they ? The unselfish
older sister has evidently cut up her nightgowns
to make them white dresses for this occasion."

" Lorena," said the younger girl, " if I were
you I would be ashamed ; mother would not
like you to talk in that way."

THE FLOWER PARTY. 311

"Well, you see Miss Nanie, you are not me,
therefore you cannot tell what you would be,
or do ; and I want to inform you it is not
your business to tell me what mother would
like."

Imagine Nettie Decker standing quietly, with
the barefooted child's small hand closely
clasped in hers, listening to all this ! There was
a pretense of lowered voices, yet every word
was distinct to her ears. Her heart beat fast
and she began to feel as though she really was
paying quite a high price for the possibility of
getting Norm into the church parlor for a few
minutes that evening.

At that moment, through the main gateway,
came Ermina Farley, a colored man with her,
bearing a basket full of such wonderful roses,
that for a minute the group could only exclaim
over them. Ermina was in white, but her dress
was simply made, and looked as though she
might not be afraid to tumble about on the
grass in it ; her shoes were thick, and the blue
sash she wore, though broad and handsome, had
some way a quiet air of fitness for the occasion,
which did not seem to belong to most of the
others. She watched the disposal of her roses,

312 LITTLE FISHEKS: AND THEIR NETS.

then gave an inquiring glance about the grounds
as she said, " What are you all doing here ? "

" We are having a tableau," said Lorena Bar-
stow. " Look behind you, and you will see
the Misses Bridget and Margaret Mulrooney,
who have just arrived from ould Ireland shure."

Most of the thoughtless girls laughed, mis-
taking this rudeness for wit, but Ermina turned
quickly and caught her first glimpse of Nettie's
burning face ; then she hastened toward her.

"Why, here is little Prudy, after all," she
said eagerly ; " I coaxed her mother to let her
come, but I didn't think she would. Has Miss
Sherrill seen her ? I think she will make such a
cunning Roman flower-girl, in that tableau, you
know. Her face is precisely the shape and
style of the little girls we saw in Rome last win-
ter. Poor little girlie, was she frightened?
How kind you were to take care of her. She
is a real bright little thing. I want to coax her
into Sunday-school if I can. Let us go and ask
Miss Sherrill what she thinks about the flower-
girl."

How fast Ermina Farley could talk! She
did not wait for replies. The truth was, Net-
tie's glowing cheeks, and Susie's fierce looks,

THE FLOWER PARTY. 313

told her the story of trial for somebody else
besides the Roman flower-girl ; she could guess
at things which might have been said before she
came. She wound her arm familiarly about
Nettie's waist as she spoke, and drew her, al-
most against her will, across the lawn. "My!"
said Irene Lewis. "How good we are ! "

"Birds of a feather, flock together," quoted
Lorena Barstow. "I think that barefooted
child and her protector look alike."

"Still," said Irene, "you must remember
that Ermina Farley has joined that flock ; and
her feathers are very different."

"Oh! that is only for effect," was the naughty
reply, with another toss of the rich curls.

Now what was the matter with all these dis-
agreeable young people ? Did they really attach
so much importance to the clothes they wore
as to think no one was respectable who was
not dressed like them? Had they really no
hearts, so that it made no difference to them
how deeply they wounded poor Nettie Decker ?

I do not think it was quite either of these
things. They had been, so far in their lives,
unfortunate, in that they had heard a great deal
about dress, and style, until they had done what

814 LITTLE FISHEKS: AND THEIE NETS.

young people and a few older ones are apt to
do, attached too much importance to these
things. They were neither old enough, nor
wise enough, to know that it is a mark of a shal-
low nature to judge of people by the clothes
they wear; then, in regard to the ill-riatured
things said, I tell you truly, that even Lorena
Barstow was ashamed of herself. When her
younger sister reproved her, the flush which
came on her cheek was not all anger, much of it
was shame. But she had taught her tongue to
say so many disagreeable words, and to pride
itself on its independence in saying what
she pleased, that the habit asserted itself,
and she could not seem to controj it. The con-
trast between her own conduct and Ermina
Farley's struck her so sharply and disagreeably
it served only to make her worse than before ;
precisely the effect which follows when people
of uncontrolled tempers find themselves rebuked.
Half-way down the lawn the party in search
of Miss Sherrill met her face to face. Her
greeting was warm. " Oh ! here is my dear
little grandmother. Thank you, Nettie, for
coming; I look to you for a great deal of help.
Why, Ermina, what weemousie have you here?"

THE FLOWEB PARTY. 315

" She is a little Roman flower-girl, Miss Sher-
rill ; they live on Parker street. Her mother
is a nice woman ; my mother has her to run the
machine. I coaxed her to let Trudie wear her
red dress and come barefoot, until you would
see if she would do for the Roman flower-girl.
Papa says her face is very Roman in style, and
she always makes us think of the flower-girls
we saw there. I brought my Roman sash to
dress her in, if you thought well of it ; she is
real bright, and will do just as she is told."

"It is the very thing," said Miss Sherrill with
a pleased face ; " I am so glad you thought of
it. And the hollyhocks are just red enough to
go in the basket. Did you think of them too ?"

" No, ma'am ; mamma did. She said the
more red flowers we could mass about her, the
better for a Roman peasant."

" It will be a lovely thing," said Miss Sherrill.
Then she stooped and kissed the small brown
face, which was now smiling through its tears.
" You have found good friends, little one. She
is very small to be here alone. Ermina, will you
and Nettie take care of her this afternoon, and
see that she is happy ? "

" Yes'm," said Ermina promptly. " Nettie

316 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

was taking care of her when I came. She was
afraid at first, I think."

" They were ugly to her," volunteered Susie,
" they were just as ugly to her as they could be ;
they made her cry. If they'd done it to Sate I
would have scratched them and bit them."

" Oh," said Miss Sherrill sorrowfully. " How
sorry I am to hear it ; then Susie would have
been naughty too, and it wouldn't have made
the others any better ; in fact, it would have
made them worse."

" I don't care," said Susie, but she did care.
She said that, just as you do sometimes, when
you mean you care a great deal, and don't want
to let anybody know it. For the first time,
Susie reflected whether it was a good plan to
scratch and bite people who did not, in her
judgment, behave well. It had not been a
perfect success in her experience, she was
willing to admit that; and if it made Miss

O '

Sherrill sorry, it was worth thinking about.

Well, that afternoon which began so dismally,
blossomed out into a better time than Nettie
had imagined it possible for her to have. To
be sure those particular girls who had been the
cause of her sorrow, would have nothing to do

THE FLOWEB PARTY. 317

with her ; and whispered, and sent disdainful
glances her way when they had an opportunity ;
but Nettie went in thei redirection as little as
possible, and when she did was in such a hurry
that she sometimes forgot all about them. Miss
Sherrill, who was chairman of the committee
of entertainment, kept her as busy as a bee the
entire afternoon ; running hither and thither,
carrying messages to this one, and pins to that
one, setting this vase of flowers at one end, and
that lovely basket at another, and, a great deal
of the time, stand in g right beside Miss Sherrill

* o o

herself, handing her, at call, just what she
needed when she dressed the girls with their
special flowers. She could hear the bright
pleasant talk which passed between Miss Sher-
rill and the other young ladies. She was often
appealed too with a pleasant word. Her own
teacher smiled on her more than once, and said
she was the handiest little body who had ever
helped them ; and all the time that lovely Er-
mina Fai-ley with her beautiful hair, and her
pretty ways, and her sweet low voice, was near
at hand, joining in everything which she had
to do. To be sure she heard, in one of her rapid
ecampers across the lawn, this question asked

318 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

in a loud tone by Lorena Barstow : " I won-
der how much they pay that girl for running
errands? Maybe she will earn enough to get
herself a new white nightgown to wear to par-
ties ; " but at that particular minute, Ermina
Farley running from another direction on an
errand precisely like her own, bumped up
against her with such force that their noses
ached ; then both stopped to laugh merrily, and
some way, what with the bump, and the laugh-
ter, Nettie forgot to cry, when she had a chance,
over the unkind words. Then, later in the
afternoon, came Jerry ; and in less than five
minutes he joined their group, and made him-
self so useful that when Mr. Sherrill came pres-
ently for boys to go with him to the chapel to
arrange the tables, Miss Sherrill said in low
tones, " Don't take Jerry please, we need him
here." Nettie heard it, and beamed her satis-
faction. Also she heard Irene Lewis say,
" Now they've taken that Irish boy into their
crowd — shouldn't you think Ermina Farley
would be ashamed ! "

Then Nettie's face fairly paled. It is one
thing to be insulted yourself ; it is another to
stand quietly by and see your friends insulted.

THE FLOWER PARTY. 319

She was almost ready to appeal to Miss Sherrill
for protection from tongues. But Jerry heard
the same remark, and laughed ; not in a forced
way, but actually as though it was very amusing
to him. And almost immediately he called out
something to Ermina, using an unmistakable
Irish brogue. What was the use in trying to
protect a boy who was so indifferent as that?

CHAPTER XVHI.

A SATISFACTORY EVEITCNG.

little old grandmothers with their queer
caps were perhaps the feature of the even-
ing. Everybody wanted a bouquet of them. In
fact, long before eight o'clock, Jerry had been
hurried away for a fresh supply, and Nettie had
been established behind a curtain to "make
more grandmothers." In her excitement she
made them even prettier than before ; and sweet,
grave little Sate had no ti'ouble in selling every
one. The pretty Roman flower girl was so much
admired, that her father, a fine-looking young
mechanic who came after her bringing red stock-
ings and neat shoes, carried her off at last in tri-
umph on his shoulder, saying he was afraid her
head would be turned with so much praise, but
thanking everybody with bright smiling eyes for
giving his little girl such a pleasant afternoon.
" She isn't Irish, after all," said Irene Lewis,
320

"A SATISFACTORY EVENING. 321

watching them. " And Mr. Sherrill shook hands
with him as familiarly as though he was an old
friend ; I wish we hadn't made such simpletons
of ourselves. Lorena Barstow, what did you
want to go and say she was an Irish girl for?"

" I didn't say any snch thing," said Lorena in
a shrill voice ; and then these two who had been
friends in ill humor all the afternoon quarreled,
and went home more unhappy than before.
And still I tell you they were not the worst girls
in the world ; and were very much ashamed of
themselves.

Before eight o'clock, Norm came. To be sure
he stoutly refused, at first, to step beyond the
doorway, and ordered Nettie in a somewhat
surly tone to " bring that young one out," if she
wanted her carried home. That, of course, was
the little grandmother; but her eyes looked as
though they had not thought of being sleepy,
and the ladies were not ready to let her go.
Then the minister, who seemed to understand
tilings without having them explained, said,
" Where is Decker ? we'll make it all right ;
come, little grandmother, let us go and see about
it." So he took Sate on his shoulder and made
his way through the crowd; and Nettie who

322 LITTLE FISHEES: AND THEIR NETS.

watched anxiously, presently saw Norm coming
back with them, not looking surly at all ; his
clothes had been brushed, and he had on a clean
collar, and his hair was combed, quite as though
he had meant to come in, after all.

Soon after Norm's coming, something hap-
pened which gave Nettie a glimpse of her
brother in a new light. Young Ernest Bclmont
was there with his violin. During the after-
noon, Nettie had heard whispers of what a
lovely player he was, and at last saw with de-
light that a space was being cleared for him to
play. Crowds of people gathered about the
platform to listen, but among them all Norm's
face was marked ; at least it was to Nettie.
She had never seen him look like that. He
seemed to forget the crowds, and the lights, and
everything but the sounds which came from that
violin. He stood perfectly still, his eyes never
once turning from their earnest gaze of the fin-
gers which were producing such wonderful tones.
Nettie, looking, and wondering, almost forgot
the music in her astonishment that her brother
should be so absorbed. Jerry with some diffi-
culty elbowed his way towards her, his face
beaming, and said, " Isn't it splendid ? "

A SATISFACTORY EVENING. 323

For answer she said, " Look at Norm." And
Jerry looked.

" That's so," he said at last, heartily, speak-
ing as though he was answering a remark from
somebody ; " Norm is a musician. Did you
know he liked it so much ?"

"I didn't know anything about it," Nettie
said, hardly able to keep back the tears, though
she did not understand why her eyes should fill ;
but there was such a look of intense enjoyment
in Norm's face, mingled with such a wistful
longing for something, as made the tears start
in spite of her. " I didn't know he liked any-
thing so much as that."

" He likes that" said Jerry heartily, " and I
am glad."

'4l don't know. What makes you glad ? I
am almost sorry ; because he may never have a
chance to hear it again."

" He must make his chances ; he is going to be
a man. I'm glad, because it gives us a hint as
to what his tastes are ; don't you see ? "

" Why, yes," said Nettie, " I see he likes it ;
but what is the use in knowing people's tastes if
you cannot possibly do anything for them ? "

" There's no such thing as it not being possible

324 LITTLE FISHEKS: AND THEIR NETS.

to do most anything," Jerry said good humor-
edly. " Maybe we will some of us own a violin
some day, and Norm will play it for us. Who
knows? Stranger things than that have hap-
pened."

But this thing looked to Nettie so improbable
that she merely laughed. The music suddenly
ceased, and Norm came back from dreamland
and looked about him, and blushed, and felt
awkward. He saw the people now, and the
lights, and the flowers ; he remembered his
hands and did not know what to do with them ;
and his feet felt too large for the space they must
occupy.

Jerry plunged through the crowd and stood
beside him.

" How did you like it ? " he asked, and Norm
cleared his voice before replying ; he could not
understand why his throat should feel so husky.

" I like a fiddle," he said. " There is a fellow
comes into the corner grocery down there by
Grossman's and plays, sometimes ; I always go
down there, when I hear of it."

If Jerry could have caught Nettie's eye just
then he would have made a significant gesture ;
the store by Grossman's made tobacco and

A SATISFACTORY EVENING. 325

liquor its chief trade. So a fiddle was one of
the things used to draw the boys into it !

" Is a fiddle the only kind of music you like ? "
Jerry had been accustomed to calling it a violin,
but the instinct of true politeness which was
marked in him, made him say fiddle just now as
Norm had done.

" Oh ! I like anything that whistles a tune ! "
said Norm. " I've gone a rod out of my way to
hear a jew's-harp many a time ; even an old hand-
organ sounds nice to me. I don't know why,
but I never hear one without stopping and listen-
ing as long as I can." He laughed a little, as
though ashamed of the taste, and looked at Jerry
suspiciously. But there was not the slightest
hint of a smile on the boy's face, only hearty in-
terest and approval.

" I like music, too, almost any sort ; but I
don't believe I like it as well as you. Your face
looked while you were listening as though you
could make some yourself if you tried."

The smile went out quickly from Norm's face,
and Jerry thought he heard a little sigh with the
reply :

" I never had a chance to try ; and never ex-
pect to have."

326 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

i* Well, now, I should like to know why not ?
I never could understand why a boy with brains,
and hands, and feet, shouldn't have a try at
almost anything which was worth trying, some-
time in his life." It was not Jerry who said
this, but the minister who had come up in time
to hear the last words from both sides. He
stopped before Norm, smiling as he spoke.
" Try the music, my friend, by all means, if you
like it. It is a noble taste, worth cultivating."

Norm looked sullen. " It's easy to talk," he
said severely, " but when a fellow has to work
like a dog to get enough to eat and wear, to
keep him from starving or freezing, I'd like to
see him get a chance to try at music, or anything
else of that kind ! "

" So should I. He is the very fellow who ought
to have the chance ; and more than that, in nine
cases out of ten he is the fellow who gets it. A
boy who is willing and able to work, is pretty
sure, in this country, to have opportunity to
gratify his tastes in the end. He may have to
wait awhile, but that only sharpens the appetite
of a genuine taste ; if it is a worthy taste, as
music certainly is, it will grow with his growth,
and will help him to plan, and save, and contrive,

A SATISFACTORY EVENING. 327

until one of these days he will show you ! By
the way, you would like organ music, I fancy ;
the sort which is sometimes played on parlor
organs. If you will come to the parsonage to-
morrow night at eight o'clock, I think I can
promise you something which you will enjoy.
My sister is going to try some new music for a
few friends, at that time ; suppose you come and
pick out your favorite ? "

All Jerry's satisfaction and interest shone in
his face ; to-morrow night at eight o'clock ! All
day he had been trying to arrange something
which would keep Norm at that hour away from
the aforesaid corner grocery, where he happened
to know some doubtful plans were to be arranged
for future mischief, by the set who gathered there.
If only Norm would go to the parsonage it would
be the very thing. But Norm flushed and hesi-
tated. " Bring a friend with you," said the
minister. " Bring Jerry, here ; you like music,
don't you, Jerry ? "

" Yes, sir," said Jerry promptly ; " I like
music very much, and I would like to go if
Norm is willing."

" Bring Jerry with you." That sentence had a
pleasant sound. Up to this moment it was the

328 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIB NETS.

younger boy who had patronized the elder.
Norm called him the " little chap," but for all
that looked up to him with a curious sort of re-
spect such as he felt for none of the " fellows "
who were his daily companions; the idea of
bringing him to a place of entertainment had its
charms.

" May I expect you ? " asked the minister,
reading his thoughts almost as plainly as though
they had been printed on his face, and judging
that this was the time to press an acceptance.

" Why, yes," said Norm, " I suppose so."

One of these days Norman Decker will not
think of accepting an invitation with such words,
but his intentions are good, now, and the minis-
ter thanks him as though he had received a
favor, and departs well pleased.

And now it is really growing late and little
Sate must be carried home. It was an evening
to remember.

They talked it over by inches the next morn-
ing. Nettie finishing the breakfast dishes, and
Jerry sitting on the doorstep fashioning a bracket
for the kitchen lamp.

Nettie talked much about Ermina Farley.
" She is just as lovely and sweet as she can be.

A SATISFACTOEY EVENING. 329

•

It was beautiful in her to come over to me as
she did when stie came into that yard ; part of
it was for little Trudie's sake, and a great deal
of it was for my sake. I saw that at the time ;
and I saw it plainer all the afternoon. She
didn't give me a chance to feel alone once ; and
she didn't stay near me as though she felt she
ought to, but didn't want to, either; she just
took hold and helped do everything Miss Sher-
rill gave me to do, and was as bright and sweet
as she could be. I shall never forget it of her.
But for all that," she added as she wrung out

7 O

her dishcloth with an energy which the small
white rag hardly needed, " I know it was pretty
hard for her to do it, and I shall not give her a
chance to do it again."

"I want to know what there was hard
about it ? " said Jerry, looking up in astonish-
ment. " I thought Ermina Farley seemed to be
having as good a time as anybody there."

" Oh, well now, I know, you are not a girl ;
boys are different from girls. They are not so
kind-of-mean ! At least, some of them are not,"
she added quickly, having at that moment a
vivid recollection of some mean things which
she had endured from boys. " Really I don't

830 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

•

think they are," she said, after a moment's
thoughtful pause, and replying to the quizzical
look on his face. " They don't think about
dresses, and hats, and gloves, and all those
sorts of things as girls do, and they don't say
such hateful things. Oh! I know there is a
great difference; and I know just how Ermina
Farley will be talked about because she went
with me, and stood up for me so ; and I think
it will be very hard for her. I used to think so
about you, but you — are real different from
girls ! "

" It amounts to about this," said Jerry, whit-
tling gravely. " Good boys are different from
bad girls, and bad boys are different from good
girls."

Nettie laughed merrily. " No," she said, " I
do know what I am talking about, though you
don't think so ; I know real splendid girls who
couldn't have done as Ermina Farley did yester-
day, and as you do all the time ; and what I say
is, I don't mean to put myself where she will
have to do it, much. I don't want to go to their
parties ; I don't expect a chance to go, but if I
had it, I wouldn't go ; and just for her sake, I
don't mean to be always around for her to have

A SATISFACTORY EVENING. 331

to take care of me as she did yesterday. I have
something else to do." Said Jerry, " Where do
you think Norm is to take me this evening?"

" Norm going to take you ! " great wonder-
ment in the tone. " Why, where could he take
you? I don't know, I am sure."

"• He is to take me to the parsonage at eight
o'clock to hear some wonderful music on the
organ. He has been invited, and has had per-
mission to bring me with him if he wants to.
Don't you talk about not putting yourself where
other people will have to take care of you ! I
advise you to cultivate the acquaintance of your
brother. It isnl everybody who gets invited to
the parsonage to hear such music as Miss Sher-
rill can make."

The dishcloth was hung away now, and every
bit of work was done. Nettie stood looking at
the whittling boy in the doorway for a minute
in blank astonishment, then she clasped her
hands and said : " O Jerry ! Did they do it ?
Aren't they the very splendidest people you ever
knew in your life?"

" They are pretty good," said Jerry, " that's a
fact ; they are most as good as my father. I'll
tell you what it is, if you knew my father you

332 LITTLE FISHEES I AND THEIR NETS.

would know a man who would be worth remem-
bering. I had a letter from him last night, and
he sent a message to my friend Nettie."

" What ? " asked Nettie, her eyes very bright.

" It was that you were to take good care of
his boy ; for in his opinion the boy was worth
taking care of. On the strength of that I want
you to come out and look at Mother Speckle ;
she is in a very important frame of mind, and
has been scolding her children all the morning.
I don't know what is the trouble ; there are two
of her daughters who seem to have gone astray
in some way; at least she is very much dis-
pleased with them. Twice she has boxed Fluf-
fie's ears, and once she pulled a feather out
of poor Buff. See how forlorn she seems 1 "

By this time they were making their way to
the little house where the hen lived, Nettie
agreeing to go for a very few minutes, declaring
that if Norm was going out every evening there
was work to do. He would need a clean collar
and she must do it up ; for mother had gone
out to iron for the day. "Mother is so grateful
to Mrs. Smith for getting her a chance to work,"
she said, as they paused before the two disgraced
chickens; "she says she would never have

A SATISFACTORY EVENING. 333

thought of it if it had not been for her ; you
know she always used to sew. Why, how funny
those chickens look ! Only see, Jerry, they are
studying that eggshell as though they thought
they could make one. Now don't they look ex-
actly as though they were planning something?"

" They are," said Jerry. "They are planning
going to housekeeping, I believe ; you see they
have quarreled with their mother. They con-
sider that they have been unjustly punished, and
I am in sympathy with them ; and they believe
they could make a house to live in out of that
eggshell if they could only think of a way to
stick it together again. I wish we could build a
house out of eggshells ; or even one room, and
we'd have one before the month was over."

" Why ? " said Nettie, stooping down to see
why Buff kept her foot under her. " Do you
want a room, Jerry ? "

" Somewhat," said Jerry. "At least I see a
number of things we could do if we had a room,
that I don't know how to do without one. Come
over here, Nettie, and sit down ; leave those
chickens to sulk it out, and let us talk a little. I
have a plan so large that there is no place to
put it."

CHAPTER XIX.

EEADY TO TRY.

~"V7~OTJ see," said Jerry, as Nettie came, pro*
•"• testing as she walked that she could stay
but a few minutes, because there was Norm's
collar, and she had four nice apples out of
which she was going to make some splendid
apple dumplings for dinner, "you see we must
contrive something to keep a young fellow like
Norm busy, if we are going to hold him after he
is caught. It doesn't do to catch a fish and leave
him on the edge of the bank near enough to
flounce back into the water. Norm ought to be
set to work to help along the plans, and kept so
busy he wouldn't have time to get tired of them."
" But how could that be done ? " Nettie said
in wondering tones, which nevertheless had a
note of admiration in them. Jerry went so
deeply into things, it almost took her breath
away to follow him.

334

BEADY TO TBY. 335

" Just so ; that's the problem which ought to
be thought out. I can think of things enough ;
but the room, and the tools to begin with, are
the trouble."

" What have you thought of ? What would
you do if you could ? "

"O my!" said Jerry, with a little laugh;
" don't ask rne that question, or your folks will
have no apple dumplings to-day. I don't believe
there is any end to the things which I would do
if I could. But the first beginnings of them are
like this : suppose we had a few dollars capital,
and a room."

" You might as well suppose we had a palace,
and a million dollars," said Nettie, with a long-
drawn sigh.

" No, because I don't expect either of those
things ; but I do mean to have a room and a few
dollars in capital for this thing some day; only,
you see, I don't want to wait for them."

"Well, go on ; what then?"

" Why, then we would start an eating-house,
you and I, on a little bit of a scale, you know.
We would have bread with some kind of meat
between, and coffee, in cold weather, and lemon-
ade in hot, and a few apples, and now and then

336 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

some nuts, and a good deal of gingerbread —
soft, like what auntie Smith makes — and some
ginger-snaps like those Mrs. Dix sent us from
the country, and, well, you know the names of
things better than I do. Real good things, I
mean, but which don't cost much. Such as you,
and Sarah Ann, and a good many bright girls
learn how to make, without using a great deal
of money. Those things are all rather cheap,
which I have mentioned, because we have them
at our house quite often, and the Smiths are
poor, you know. But they are made so nice
that they are just capital. Well, I would have
them for sale, just as cheap as could possibly be
afforded ; a great deal cheaper than beer, or
cigars, and I would have the room bright and
cheery ; warm in winter, and as cool as I could
make it in summer ; then I would have slips of
paper scattered about the town, inviting young
folks to come in and get a lunch ; then when
they came, I would have picture papers if I
could, for them to look at, and games to play,
real nice jolly games, and some kind of music
going on now and then. I'd run opposition to
that old grocery around the corner from Cross-
man's, with its fiddle and its whiskey. That's

BEADY TO TRY. 337

the beginning of what I would do. Just what
I told you about, that first night we talked it
over. The fellows, lots of them, have nowhere
to go ; it keeps growing in my mind, the need
for doing something of the sort. I never pass
that mean grocery without thinking of it."

You should have seen Nettie's eyes ! The lit-
tle touch of discouragement was gone out of
them, and they were full of intense thought.

" I can see," she said at last, "just how splen-
did it might grow to be. But what did yo.u
mean about Norm ? there isn't any work for
him in such a plan. At least, I mean, not until
he was interested to help for the sake of others."

"Yes, there is, plenty of business for him.
Don't you see ? I would have this room, open
evenings, after the work was done, and I would
have Norm head manager. He should wait
on customers, and keep accounts. When the
thing got going he would be as busy as a bee ;
and he is just the sort of fellow to do that kind
of thing well, and like it too," he added.

" O Jerry," said Nettie, and her hands were
clasped so closely that the blood flowed back
into her wrists, " was there ever a nicer thought
than that in the world ! I know it would sue*

338 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

ceed ; and Norm would like it so much. Norm
likes to do things for others, if he only had the
chance."

" I know it ; and he likes to do things in a
business way, and keep everything straight.
Oh ! he would be just the one. If we only had
a room, there is nothing to hinder our beginning
in a very small way. Those chickens are grow-
ing as fast as they can, and by Thanksgiving
there will be a couple of them ready to broil ;
then the little old grandmothers did so well."

" I know it ; who would have supposed that
almost four dollars could be made out of some
daisy grandmothers ! Miss Sherrill gave me
one dollar and ninety-five cents which she said
was just half of what they had earned. I do
think it was so nice in her to give us that
chance ! She couldn't have known how mue£.
we wanted the money. Jerry, why couldn't we
begin, just with that? It would start us, and
then if the things sold, why, the money from,
them would keep us started until we found a
way to earn more. Why can't we ? "

"Room," said Jerry, with commendable
brevity. " Why, we have a room ; there's the
front one that we just put in such nice order.

READY TO TEY. 339

Why not? It is large enough for now, and
maybe when our business grew we could get
another one somehow."

Jerry stopped fitting the toe of his boot to s/
hole which he had made in the ground, and
looked at the eager young woman of business
before him. " Do you mean your mother would
let us have the room, and the chance in the
kitchen, to go into such business ? "

"Mother would do anything," said Nettie
emphatically, "anything in the world which
might possibly keep Norm in the house even-
ings ; you don't know how dreadfully she feels
about Norm. She thinks father," and there
Nettie stopped. How could a daughter put it
into words that her mother was afraid her father
would lead his son astray ?

" I know," said Jerry. " See here, Nettie,
what is the matter with your father? I never
saw him look so still, and — well, queer, in some
way. Mr. Smith says he doesn't think he ia
drinking a drop ; but he looks unlike himself,
somehow, and I can't decide how."

" I don't know," said Nettie, in a low voice.
" We don't know what to think of him. He
hasn't been so long without drinking, mother

340 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

says, in four years. But he doesn't act right ;
or, I mean, natural. He isn't cross, as drinking
beer makes him, but he isn't pleasant, as he was
for a day or two. He is real sober; hardly
speaks at all, nor notices the things I make ; and
I try just as hard to please him! He eats
everything, but he does it as though he didn't
know he was eating. Mother thinks he is in
some trouble, but she can't tell what. He can't
be afraid of losing his place — because mother
says he was threatened that two or three times
when he was drinking so hard, and he didn't
seem to mind it at all ; and why should he be
discharged now, when he works hard every day?
Last Saturday night he brought home more
money than he has in years. Mother cried when
she saw what there was, but she had debts to
pay, so we didn't get much start out of it after
all. Then we spend a good deal in coffee ; we
have it three times a day, hot and strong ; I can
see father seems to need it ; and I have heard
that it helped men who were trying not to drink.
When I told mother that, she said he should
have it if she had to beg for it on her knees.
But I don't know what is the matter with father
now. Sometimes mother is afraid there is a

READY TO TRY. 341

disease coming on him such as men have who
drink ; she says he doesn't sleep very well nights,
and he groans some, when he is asleep. Mother
tries hard," said Nettie, in a closing burst of
confidence, " and she does have such a hard time !
If we could only save Norm for her."

" I'll tell you who your mother looks like, or
would look like if she were dressed up, you
know. Did you ever see Mrs. Burt?"

" The woman who lives in the cottage where
the vines climb all around the front, and who
has birds, arid a baby? I saw her yesterday.
You don't think mother looks like her ! "

" She would," said Jerry, positively, " if she
had on a pink and white dress and a white fold
about her neck. I passed there last night, while
Mrs. Burt was sitting out by that window
garden of hers, with her baby in her arms ; Mr.
Burt sat on one of the steps, and they were talk-
ing and laughing together. I could not help
noticing how much like your mother she looked
when she turned her side face. Oh ! she is
younger, of course ; she looks almost as though
she might be your mother's daughter. I was
thinking what fun it would be if she were, and
we could go and visit her, and get her to help

342 LITTLE FISHEKS: AND THEIR NETS.

us about all sorts of things. Mr. Burt knows
how to do every kind of work about building a
house, or fixing up a room."

" He is a nice man, isn't he ? "

" Why, yes, nice enough ; he is steady and
works hard. Mr. Smith thinks he is quite a
pattern ; he has bought that little house where
he lives, and fixed it all up with vines and things ;
but I should like him better if he didn't puff
tobacco smoke into his wife's face when he talked
with her. He doesn't begin to be so good a
workman as your father, nor to know so much
in a hundred ways. I think your father is a very
nice-looking man when he is dressed up. He looks
smart, and he is smart. Mr. Smith says there
isn't a man in town who can do the sort of work
that he can at the shop, and that he could get
very high wages and be promoted and all that,
if" —

Jerry stopped suddenly, and Nettie finished
the sentence with a sigh. She too had passed
the Burt cottage and admired its beauty and
neatness. To think that Mr. Burt owned it, and
was a younger man by fifteen years at least than
her father — and was not so good a workman !
then see how well he dressed his wife ; and lit-

BEADY TO TRY. 343

tie Bobby Burt looked as neat and pretty in
Sunday-school as the best of them. It was very
hard that there must be such a difference in
homes. If she could only live in a house like
the Burt cottage, and have things nice about
her as they did, and have her father and mother
sit together and talk, as Mr. and Mrs. Burt did,
she should be perfectly happy, Nettie told her-
self. Then she sprang up from the log and de-
clared that she must not waste another minute
of time ; but that Jerry's plan was the best one
she had ever heard, and she believed they could
begin it.

With this thought still in mind, after the din-
ner dishes were carefully cleared away, and her
mother, returned from the day's ironing, had
been treated to a piece of the apple dumpling
warmed over for her, and had said it was as nice
a bit as she ever tasted, Nettie began on the
subject which had been in her thoughts all day :

" What would you think of us young folks go-
ing into business ? "

" Going into business ! "

"Yes'm. Jerry and Norm and me. Jerry
has a plan ; he has been telling me about it this
morning. It is nice if we can only carry it out ;

344 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

and I shouldn't wonder if we could. That is, if
you think well of it."

" I begin to think there isn't much that you
and Jerry can't do, with Norm, or with anybody
else, if you try ; and you both appear to be ready
to try to do all you can for everybody."

Mrs. Decker's tone was so hearty and pleased,
that you would not have known her for the same
woman who looked forward dismally but a few
weeks ago to Nettie's home-coming. Her heart
had so warmed to the girl in her efforts for
father and brother, that she was almost ready to
agree to anything which she could have to pro-
pose. So Nettie, well pleased with this begin-
ning, unfolded with great clearness and detail,
Jerry's wonderful plan for not only catching
Norm, but setting him up in business.

Mrs. Decker listened, and questioned and,
cross-questioned, sewing swiftly the while on
Norm's jacket which had been torn, and which
was being skilfully darned in view of the even-
ing to be spent at the parsonage.

"Well," she said at last, " it looks wild to me,
I own ; I should as soon try to flyf as of making
anything like that work in this town ; but then,
you've made things work, you two, that I'd no

BEADY TO TRY. 345

notion could be done, and between you, you
seem to kind of bewitch Norm. He's done
things for you that I would no sooner have
thought of asking of him than I would have asked
him to fly up to the moon; and this may be
another of them. Anyhow, if you've a mind to
try it, I won't be the one to stop you. I've been
that scared for Norm, that I'm ready for any-
thing. Oh ! the room, of course you may use it.
If you wanted to have a circus in there, I think
I'd agree, wild animals and all ; I've had worse
than wild animals in my day. No, your father
won't object ; he thinks what you do is about
right, I guess. And for the matter of that, he
doesn't object to anything nowadays ; I don't
know what to make of him."

The sentence ended with a long-drawn,
troubled*sigh.

Just what this strange change in her husband
meant, Mrs. Decker could not decide; and each
theory which she started in her mind about it,
looked worse than the last.

Norm's collar was ready for him, so was his
jacket. He was somewhat surly ; the truth was,
he had received what he called a "bid" to the
merry-making which was to take place in the

346 LITTLE FISHEKS: AND THEIE NETS.

back room of the grocery, around the corner
from Grossman's, and he was a good deal tried
to think he had cut himself off by what he
called a " spooney " promise, from enjoying the
evening there. At the same time there was a
certain sense of largeness in saying he could not
come because he had received an invitation
elsewhere, which gave him a momentary pleas-
ure. To be sure the boys coaxed until they had
discovered the place of his engagement, and
joked him the rest of the time, until he was half-
inclined to wish he had never heard of the par-
sonage ; but for all that, a certain something in
Norman which marked him as different from
some boys, held him to his word when it was
passed ; and he had no thought of breaking from
his engagement. It was an evening such as
Norman had reason to remember. For* the first
time in his life he sat in a pleasantly furnished
home, among ladies and gentlemen, and heard
himself spoken to as one who "belonged."

Three ladies were there from the city, and two
gentlemen whom Norman had never seen be-
fore ; all friends of the Sherrills come out to
spend a day with them. They were not only
unlike any people whom he had ever seen before,

READY TO TRY. 347

but, if he had known it, unlike a great many
ladies and gentlemen, in that their chief aim in
life was to be found in their Master's service ;
and a boy about whom they knew nothing, save
tli at he was poor, and surrounded by tempta-
tions, and Satan desired to have him, was in
their eyes so much stray material which they
were bound to bring back to the rightful owner
if they could.

To this end they talked to Norman. Not in
the form of a lecture, but with bright, winning
words, on topics which he could understand,
not only, but actually on certain topics aoou-
which he knew more than they For instance,
there was a cave about two miles from the town,
J>£ which they had heard, but had never &3en *
and Norm had explored every crevice in it many
a lime, - He knew on which side of the river :i
was located, wnether the entrance was from ths
east or the south ; just how far one could •wall:
jnrough it, just how far one could creep in it,
after walking had become impossible, and a
dozen other things which it had not occurred to
him were of interest to anybody else. In fact,
Norm discovered in the course of the hour that
there was such a thing as conversation. Not

LITTLE FISHEES: AND THEIE NETS.

that he made use of that word, in thinking it
over ; his thoughts, if they could have been seen,
would have been something like this : " These
are swell folks, but I can understand what they
say, and they seem to understand what^I say,
and don't stare as though I was a wild animal
escaped from the woods. I wonder what makes
the difference between them and other folks?"

But when the music began ! I have no words
to describe to you what it was to Norm to sit
close to an organ and hear its softest notes, and
feel the thrill of its heavy bass tones, and be ap-
pealed to occasionally as to whether he liked
this or that the best, and to have a piece sung
because the player thought it would please him ;
she selected it that morning, she told him, with
this thought in view.

" Decker, you ought to learn to play," said one
of the guests who had watched him through the
last piece. "You look music, right out of your
eyes. Miss Sherrill, here is a pupil for you who
might do you credit. Have you ever had any
instrument, Decker ? "

Then Norm came back to every-day life, and
flushed and stammered. " No, he hadn't, and
was not likely to;" and wondered what they

BEADY TO TRY. 349

would think if they were to see the corner
grocery where he spent most of his leisure
time.

The questioner laughed pleasantly. " Oh, I'm
not so sure of that. I have a friend who plays
the violin in a way to bring tears to people's
eyes, and he never touched one until he was
thirty years old ; hadn't time until then. He
was an apprentice, and had his trade to master,
and himself to get well started in it before he
had time for music ; but when he came to leis-
ure, he made music a delight to himself and
to others."

" A great deal can be done with leisure time,"
said another of the guests. " Mr. Sherrill, you
remember Myers, your college classmate ? He
did not learn to read, you know, until he was
seventeen."

"What? "said Norm, astonished out of his
diffidence ; " didn't know how to read ! "

" No," repeated the gentleman, " not until he
was seventeen. He had a hard childhood — was
kicked about in the world, with no leisure and
no help, had to work evenings as well as days,
but when he was seventeen he fell into kinder
hands, and had a couple of hours each evening

350 LITTLE FISHEES : AND THEIE NETS.

all to himself, and he mastered reading, not
only, but all the common studies, and graduated
from college with honor when he was twenty-
six."

Now Norm had all his evenings to lounge
about in, and had not known what to do with
them ; and he could read quite well.

CHAPTER XX.

THE WAY HADE PLAIN.

"TT was a beautiful Sabbath afternoon; just
•*• warm enough to make people feel still
and pleasant. The soft summer sunshine lay
smiling on all the world, and the soft sum-
mer breeze rustled the leaves of the trees,
and stole gently in at open windows. In the
front room of the Deckers, the family was
gathered, all save Mr. Decker. He could be
heard in his bedroom stepping about occasion-
ally, and great was his wife's fear lest he was
preparing to go down town and put himself in
the place of temptation at his old lounging place.
Sunday could not be said to be a day of rest tx>
Mrs. Decker. It had been the day of her great-
est trials, so far. Norm was in his clean shirt
and collar, which had been done up again by
Nettie's careful hands and which shone beauti-
fully. He was also in his shirt sleeves ; that the
35*

352 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

mother was glad to see ; he was not going out
just yet, anyway. Mrs. Decker had honored
the day with a clean calico dress, and had shyly
and with an almost shamefaced air, pinned into
it a little cambric ruffle which Nettie had pre-
sented her, with the remark that it was just like
the one Mrs. Burt wore, and that Jerry said she
looked like Mrs. Burt a little, only he thought
she was the best-looking of the two. Mrs.
Decker had laughed, and then sighed ; and said
it made dreadful little difference to her how she
looked. But the sigh meant that the days were
not so very far distant when Mr. Decker used
to tell her she was a handsome woman ; and she
used to smile over it, and call him a foolish man
without any taste; but nevertheless used to like
it very much, and make herself look as well as
she could for his sake.

She hadn't done it lately, but whose fault was
{fiat, she should like to know ? However, she
pinned the ruffle in, and whether Mr. Decker
noticed it or not, she certainly looked wonder-
fully better. Norm noticed it, but of course he
would not have said so for the world. Nettie
in her blue and white gingham which had been
washed and ironed since the flower party, and

THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 353

which had faded a little and shrunken a little,
still looked neat and trim, and had the little girls
one on either side of her, telling them a story in
low tones ; not so low but that the words floated
over to the window where Norm was pretending
not to listen : " And so," said the voice, " Daniel
let himself be put into a den of dreadful fierce
lions, rather than give up praying."

"Did they frow him in ?" this question from
little Sate, horror in every letter of the words.

"Yes, they did ; and shut the door tight."

" I wouldn't have been," said fierce Susie ;
" I would have bitten, and scratched and kicked
just awful ! "

"Why didn't Daniel shut up the window just
as tight, and not let anybody know it when he
said his prayers?"

Oh little Sate! how many older and wiser
ones than you have tried to slip around con-
science corners in some such way.

"I don't know all the reasons," said Nettie,
after a thoughtful pause, "but I suppose one
was, because he wouldn't act in a way to make
people believe he had given up praying. He
wanted to show them that he meant to pray,
whether they forbade it or not."

354 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIB NETS.

" Go on," said Susie, sharply, " I want to know
how he felt when the lions bit him."

"They didn't bite him"; God wouldn't let
them touch him. They crouched down and
kept as still, all night ; and in the morning when
the king came to look, there was Daniel, safe ! "

" Oh my ! " said Sate, drawing a long, quiver-
ing sigh of relief; " wasn't that just splendid ! "

" How do you know it is true ? " said skeptical
Susie, looking as though she was prepared not
to believe anything.

" I know it because God said it, Susie ; he put
it in the Bible."

"I didn't ever hear him say it," said Susie
with a frown. A laugh from Norm at that mo-
ment gave Nettie her first knowledge of him as
a listener. Her cheeks grew red, and she would
have liked to slip away into a more quiet corner
but Sate was in haste to hear just what the king
said, and what Daniel said, and all about it, and
the story went on steadily, Daniel's character
for true bravery shining out all the more
strongly, perhaps, because Nettie suspected her-
self of being a coward, and not liking Norm to
laugh at her Bible stories. As for Norm, he
knew he was a coward j he knew he had done in

THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 355

his life dozens of things to make his mother
cry ; not because he was so anxious to do them,
nor because he feare'd a den of lions if he re-
fused, but simply because some of the fellows
would laugh at him if he did.

That Sabbath day had been a memorable one
to the Decker family in some respects; at least
to part of it. Nettie had taken the little girls
with her to Sabbath-school, and then to church.
Mrs. Smith had given her a cordial invitation to
sit in their seat, but it was not a very large seat,
and when Job and his wife, and Sarah Ann and
Jerry were all there, as they were apt to be, there
was just room for Nettie without the little girls ;
so she went with them to the seat directly under
the choir gallery where very few sat. It was
comfortable enough ; she could see the minister
distinctly, and though she had to stretch outlier
neck to see the choir, she could hear their sweet
voices ; and surely that was enough. All went
smoothly until the sermon was concluded. Sate
sat quite still, and if she did not listen to the
sermon, listened to her own thoughts and
troubled no one.

But when the anthem began, Sate roused her-
self. That wonderful voice which seemed to fill

356 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

every corner of the church ! She knew the
voice ; it belonged to her dear teacher. She
stretched out her little neck, and could catch a
glimpse of her, standing alone, the rest of the choir
sitting back, out of sight. And what was that
she was saying, over and over ? " Come unto Me,
unto Me, unto Me " — the words were repeated
in the softest of cadences — "all ye who are
weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest."
Sate did not understand those words, certainly
her little feet were not weary, but there was a
sweetness about the word " rest " as it floated
out on the still air, which made her seem to want
to go, she knew not- whither. Then came the
refrain : " Come unto Me, unto Me," swelling
and rolling until it filled all the aisles, and dying
away at last in the tenderest of pleading sounds.
Sate's heart beat fast, and the color came and
went on her baby face in a way which would have
startled Nettie had she not been too intent on her
own exquisite delight in the music, to remember
the motionless little girl at her left.

" Take my yoke upon you, and learn of Me,
learn of Me," called the sweet voice, and Sate,
understanding the last of it felt that she wanted
to ^arn, and of that One above all others. " For

THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 357

I am meek and lowly of heart" — she did not
know what the words meant, but she was drawn,
drawn. Then, listening, breathless, half resolved,
came again that wondrous pleading, " Come
unto Me, unto Me, unto Me." Softly the little
feet slid down to the carpeted floor, softly they
stepped on the green and gray mosses which
gave back no sound ; softly they moved down
the aisle as though they carried a spirit with
them, and when Nettie, hearing no sound, yet
turned suddenly as people will, to look after her
charge, little Sate was gone ! Where ? Nettie
did not know, could not conjecture. No sight
of her in the aisle, not under the seat, not in the
great church anywhere. The door was open
into the hall, and poor little tired Sate must
have slipped away into the sunshine outside.
"Well, no harm could come to her there; she
would surely wait for them, or, failing in that,
the road home was direct enough, and nothing
to trouble her ; but how strange in little Sate to
do it ! If it had been Susie, resolute, indepen-
dent Susie always sufficient to herself and a little
more ready to do as she pleased than any other
way ! But Susie sat up prim and dignified on
Nettie's right ; not very conscious of the music,

358 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIB NETS.

and willing enough to have the service over, but
conscious that she had on her new shoes, and a
white dress, and a white bonnet, and looked very
well indeed. Meantime, little Sate was not out
in the sunshine. She had not thought of sun-
Rhine ; she had been called ; it was not possible
for her sweet little heart to get away from the
feeling that some one was calling her, and that
she wanted to go. What better was there to
do than follow the voice ? So she followed it,
out into the hall, up the gallery stairs, still softly
— the new shoes made no sound on the carpet —
through the door which stood ajar, quite to
the singer's side, there slipped this quiet little
woman who had left her white bonnet by Nettie,
and stood with her golden head rippling with
the sunlight which fell upon it. There was a
rustle in the choir gallery, a soft stir over the
church, the sort of sound which people make
when they are moved by some deep feeling which
they hardly understand ; there was a smile on
some faces, but it was the kind of smile which
might be given to a baby angel if it had strayed
away from heaven to look at something bright
down here. The tenor singer would have
drawn away the small form from the soloist, but

LITTLE SATE IN THE CHOIR GALLERY. 359

THE WAT MA UK PLAIN. 359

she put forth a protecting hand and circled the
child, and sang on, her voice taking sweeter tone,
if possible, and dying away in such tenderness
as made the smiles on some faces turn to tears,
and made the echo linger with them of that last
tremulous " Come unto Me."

But little Sate, when she reached the choir
gallery, saw something which startled her out of
her sweet resolute calm. Away on the side, up
there, where few people were, sat her own
father ; and rolling down his cheeks were tears.
Sate had never seen her father cry before.
What was the matter ? Had she been naughty,
and was it making him feel bad? She stole a
startled glance at the face of her teacher, whose
arm was still around her and had drawn her to-
ward the seat into which she dropped, when the
song was over. No, her face was quiet and
sweet; not grieved, as Sate was sure it would
be, if she had been naughty. Neither did the
people look cross at her ; many of them had
bowed their heads in prayer, but some were sit-
ting erect, looking at her and smiling ; surely
she had made no noise. Why should her
father cry ? She looked at him ; he had shaded
his face with his hand. Was he crying still ?

360 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

Little Sate thought it over, all in a moment of
time, then suddenly she slipped away from the
encircling arm, moved softly across the interven-
ing space, into the side gallery, and was at her
father's side, with her small hand on his sleeve.
He stooped and took her in his arms, and the
tears were still in his eyes ; but he kissed her,
and kissed her, as little Sate had never been
kissed before ; she nestled in his arms and felt
safe and comforted.

The prayer was over, the benediction given,
and the worshipers moved down the aisles.
Sate rode comfortably in her father's arms, down
stairs, out into the hall, outside, in the sunshine,
waiting for Nettie and for her white sunbonnet.
Presently Nettie came, hurried, flushed, despite
her judgment, anxious as to where the bonnet-
less little girl could have vanished. " Why,
Sate," she began, but the rest of the sentence
died in astonished silence on her lips, for Sate
held her father's hand and looked content.

They walked home together, the father and his
youngest baby, saying nothing, for Sate was one
of those wise-eyed little children who have spells
of sweet silence come over them, and Nettie,
with Susie, walked behind, the elder sister spec-

THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 361

ulating: "Where did little Sate find father?
Did he pick her upon the street somewhere, and
would he be angry, and not let Nettie take her
to church any more ? Or did he, passing, spy
her in the churchyard and come in for her?"

Nettie did not know, and Sate did not tell;
principally because she did not understand that
there was anything to tell. So while the peo-
ple in their homes talked and laughed about the
small white waif who had slipped into the choir,
the people in this home were entirely silent
about it, and the mother did not know that any-
thing strange had happened. It is true, Susie
began to inquire reprovingly, but was hushed by
Nettie's warning whisper ; certainly Nettie was
gaining a wonderful control over the self-suffi-
cient Susie. The child respected her almost
enough to follow her lead unquestioningly, which
was a great deal for Susie to do.

So they sat together that sweet Sabbath after-
noon, Nettie telling her Bible stories, and won-
dering how she should plan. What did Norm
intend to do a little later in the day? What
was there she could do to keep him from loung-
ing down street ? Why was her father staying
so long in the choked-up bedroom? What was the

362 LITTLE FISHEKS : AND THEIR NETS.

matter with her father these days, and how long
was anything going to last? Why did she feel,
someway, as though she stood on the very edge
of something which startled and almost fright-
ened her ? Was it because she was afraid her
father would not let her take Sate and Susie to
church any more ?

With all these thoughts floating through her
mind, it was rather hard to keep herself closely
confined to Daniel and his experiences. Sud-
denly the bedroom door opened and her father
came out. Everybody glanced up, though per-
haps nobody could have told why. There was
a peculiar look on his face. Mrs. Decker noticed
it and did not understand it, and felt her heart
beat in great thuds against the back of her chair.
Little Sate noticed it, and went over to him and
slipped her hand inside his. He sat down in the
state chair which Nettie and her mother had
both contrived to have left vacant, and took Sate
in his arms. This of itself was unusual, but after
that, there was silence, Sate nestling safely in
the protective arms and seeming satisfied with
all the world. Nettie felt her face flush, and her
bosom heave as if the tears were coming, but
she could not have told why she wanted to cry

THE WAY MADE PLAHf. 363

Norm seemed oppressed with the stillness, and
broke it by whistling softly; also he had a small
stick and was whittling ; it was the only thing
he could think of to do just now. It was too
early to go out ; the boys would not be through
with their boarding-house dinners yet. Sud-
denly Mr. Decker broke in on the almost silence.
" Hannah," he said, then he cleared his voice, and
was still again, " and you children," he added,
after a moment, " I've got something to tell you
if I knew how. Something that I guess you will
be glad to hear. I've turned over a new leaf at
last. I've turned it, off and on, in my mind a good
many times lately, though I don't know as any
of you knew it. I've been thinking about this
thing, well, as soon as Nannie there came home,
at least ; but I haven't understood it very well,
and I s'pose I don't now; but I understand it
enough to have made up my mind ; and that's
more than half the battle. The long and short
of it is, I have given myself to the Lord, or he
has got hold of me, somehow ; it isn't much of
a gift, that's a fact, but the queer thing about it
is, he seems to think it worth taking. I told
him last night that if he would show a poor
stick like me how to do it, why, I'd do my part

364 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

without fail; and this morning he not only
showed the way plain enough, but he sent my
little girl to help me along."

The father's voice broke then, and a tear
trembled in his eye. Sate had held her little
head erect and looked steadily at him as soon as
he began to talk, wonder and interest, and some
sort of still excitement in her face as she listened.
At his first pause she broke forth :

"Did He mean you, papa, when He said
4 Come unto Me ' ? Was He calling you, all the
time? and did you tell Him you would?"

"Yes," he said, bending and kissing the
earnest face, " He meant me, and He's been call-
ing me loud, this good while ; but I never got
started till to-day. Now I'm going along with
Him the rest of the way."

" I'm so glad," said little Sate, nestling con-
tentedly back, " I'm so glad, papa ; I'm going
too."

CHAPTER XXI,

THE NEW ENTEBPEISK.

bright and never-to-be-forgotten day,
Nettie and Jerry stood together in the
"new" room and surveyed with intense satis-
faction all its appointments. They were ready
to begin business. On that very evening the
room was to be " open to the public ! " They
looked at each other as they repeated that
large-sounding phrase, and laughed gleefully.

There had been a great deal to do to get
ready. Hours and even days had been spent in
planning. It astonished both these young peo-
ple to discover how many things there were to
think of, and get ready for, and guard against,
before one could go into business. There was
a time when with each new day, new perplexi-
ties arose. During those days Jerry had spent
a good deal of his leisure in fishing; both be-
cause at the Smiths, and also at the Deckers,
365

366 LITTLE PISHEKS: AND THEIB NETS.

fish were highly prized, and also because, as he
confided to Nettie, " a fellow could somehow
think a great deal better when his fingers were
at work, and when it was still everywhere about
him."

There were times, however, when his solitude
was disturbed. There had been one day in
particular when something happened about
which he did not tell Nettie. He was in his
fishing suit, which though clean and whole was
not exactly the style of dress which a boy would
wear to a party, and he stood leaning against a
rail fence, rod in hand, trying to decide whether
he should try his luck on that side, or jump
across the logs to a shadier spot ; trying also to
decide just how they could manage to get an-
other lamp to stand on the reading table, when
he heard voices under the trees just back of
him.

They -were whispering in that sort of pene-
trating whisper that floats so far in the open
air, and which some, girls, particularly, do not
seem to know can be heard a few feet away.
Jerry could hear distinctly ; in fact unless he
stopped his ears with his hands he could not
help hearing.

THE NEW ENTERPRISE. 367

And the old rule, that listeners never hear any
good of themselves, applied here.

" There's that Jerry who lives at the Smiths',"
said whisperer number one, " do look what a
fright ; I guess he has borrowed a pair of Job
Smith's overalls ! Isn't it a shame that such a
nice-looking boy is deserted in that way, and
left to run with all sorts of people?"

" I heard that he wasn't deserted ; that his
father was only staying out West, or down
South, or somewhere for awhile."

" Oh ! that's a likely story," said whisperer
number one, her voice unconsciously growing
louder. "Just as if any father who was anybody,
would leave a boy at Job Smith's for months,
and never come near him. I think it is real
mean ; they say the Smiths keep him at work
all the while, fishing ; he about supports them,
and the Deckers too, with fish and things."

At this point the amused listener nearly for-
got himself and whistled.

"Oh well, that's as good a way as any to
spend his time ; he knows enough to catch fish
and do such things, and when he is old enough, I
suppose he will leam a trade ; but I must say I
think he is a nice-looking fellow."

368 LITTLE FISHEBS : AND THEIR NETS.

"He would be, if he dressed decently. The
hoys like him real well; they say he is smart ;
and I shouldn't wonder if he was ; his eyes
twinkle as though he might be. If he wouldn't
keep running with that Decker girl all the time,
he migh£ be noticed now and then."

At this point came up a third young miss who
spoke louder. Jerry recognized her voice at once
as belonging to Lorena Barstow. " Girls, what
are you doing here? Why, there is that Irish
boy ; I wonder if he wouldn't sell us some fish ?
They say he is very anxious to earn money ; I
should think he would be, to get himself some
decent clothes. Or maybe he wants to make
his dear Nan a present."

Then followed a laugh which was quickly
hushed, lest the victim might hear. But the
victim had heard, and looked more than amused ;
his eyes flashed with a new idea.

"Much obliged, Miss Lorena," he said softly,
nodding his head. "If I don't act on your hint,
it will be because I am not so bright as you give
me credit for being."

Then the first whisperer took up the story :

" Say, girls, I heard that Ermina did really
mean to invite him to her candy pull, and the

THE NEW ENTEEPBISE. 369

Decker girl too ; she says they both belong to
the Sunday-school, and she is going to invite all
the boys and girls of that age in the school, and
her mother thinks it would not be nice to leave
them out. You know the Parleys are real
queer about some things."

Lorena Barstow flamed into a voice which
was almost loud. " Then I say let's just not
speak a word to either of them the whole even-
ing. Ermina Farley need not think that be-
cause she lives in a grand house, and her father
has so much money, she can rule us all. I for
one, don't mean to associate with a drunkard's
daughter, and I won't be niade to, by the Far-
leys or anybody else."

"Her father isn't a drunkard now. Why,
don't you know he has joined the church ? And
last Wednesday night they say he was in prayer
meeting."

" Oh, yes, and what does that amount to? My
father says it won't last six weeks; he says
drunkards are not to be trusted; they never
reform. And what if he does? That doesn't
make Nan Decker anything but a dowdy, not
fit for us girls to go with ; and as for that Irish
boy ! Why doesn't Ermina go down on Paddy

370 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

Lane and invite the whole tribe of Irish if she
is so fond of them ? "

" Hush, Lora, Ermina will hear you."
Sure enough at that moment came Ermina,
springing briskly over logs and underbrush.
" Have I kept you waiting ? " she asked gayly.
" The moss was so lovely back there ; I wanted
to carry the whole of it home to mother. Why,
girls, there is that boy who sits across from us
in Sabbath-school.

"How do you do?" .she said pleasantly, for
at that moment Jerry turned and came toward
them, lifting his hat as politely as though it was
in the latest shape and style.

" Have you had good luck in fishing ? "
" Very good for this side ; the fish are not so
plenty here generally as they are further up.
I heard you speaking of fish, Miss Barstow,
and wondering whether I would not supply
your people ? I should be very glad to do so,
occasionally ; I am a pretty successful fellow so
far as fishing goes."

You should have seen the cheeks of the whis-
perers then ! Ermina looked at them, perplexed
for a moment, then seeing they answered only
with blushes and silence she spoke : " Mamma

THE NEW ENTERPRISE. 371

would be very glad to get some ; she was say-
ing yesterday she wished she knew some one of
whom she could get fish as soon as they were
caught. Have you some to-day for sale?"

"Three beauties which I would like nothing
better than to sell, for I am in special need of
the money just now."

" Very well," said Ermina promptly, " I am
sure mamma will like them; could you carry
them down now ? I am on my way home and
could show you where to go."

" Ermina Farley ! " remonstrated Lorena Bar-
stow in a low shocked tone, but Ermina only
said : "Good-by, girls, I shall expect you early
on Thursday evening," and walked briskly down
the path toward the road, with Jerry beside
her, swinging his fish. If the girls could have
seen his eyes just then, they would have been
sure that they twinkled.

They had a pleasant walk, and Ermina did
actually invite him to her candy-pull on Thurs-
day evening ; not only that, but she asked if he
would take an invitation from her to Nettie
Decker. " She lives next door to you, I think,"
said Ermina, " I would like very much to have
her come ; I think she is so pleasant and unself-

372" LITTLE FISHERS .* AND THEIE NETS.

ish. It is just a few boys and girls of our age,
in the Sunday-school."

How glad Jerry was that she had invited
them! He had been so afraid that her courage
would not be equal to it. Glad was he also to
be able to say, frankly, that both he and Nettie
had an engagement for Thursday evening ; he
would be sure to give Nettie the invitation, but
he knew she could not come. Of course she
could not, he said to himself; "Isn't that our
opening evening?" But all the same it was
very nice in Ermina Farley to have invited
them.

"Here is another lamp for the table," said
Jerry gayly, as he rushed into the new room an
hour later and tossed down a shining silver
dollar. He had exchanged the fish for it.
Then he sat down and told part of their story
to Nettie. About the whisperers, however, he
kept silent. What was the use in telling that ?

But from them he had gotten another idea.
"Look here, Nettie, some evening we'll have a
candy-pull, early, with just a few to help, and
sell it cheap to customers."

So now they stood together in the room to
see if there was another thing to be done before

THE NEW ENTEBPBISE. 373

the opening. A row of shelves planed and
fitted by Norm were ranged two thirds of the
way up the room and on them were displayed
tempting pans of ginger cookies, doughnuts,
molasses cookies, and soft gingerbread. Sand-
wiches made of good bread, and nice slices of
ham, were shut into the corner cupboard to
keep from drying; there was also a plate of
cheese which was a present from Mrs. Smith.
She had sent it in with the explanation that it
would be a blessing to her if that cheese could
get eaten by somebody ; she bought it once, a
purpose, as a treat for Job, and it seemed it
wasn't the kind he liked, and none of the rest
of them liked any kind, so there it had stood
on the shelf eying her for days. There was to
be coffee ; Nettie had planned for that. " Be-
cause," she explained, " they aU drink beer ;
and things to eat, can never take the place of
things to drink."

It had been a difficult matter to get the
materials together for this beginning. All the
money which came in from the "little old
grandmothers," as well as that which Jerry con-
tributed, had been spent in flour, and sugar,
and eggs and milk. Nettie was amazed and

374 LITTLE FISHEKS: AND THBIB NETS.

dismayed to find how much even soft ginger-
bread cost, when every pan of it had to be
counted in money. A good deal of arithmetic
had been spent on the question : How low can
we possibly sell this, and not actually lose
money by it? Of course some allowance had
to be made for waste. " We'll have to name it
waste," explained Nettie with an anxious face,
" because it won't bring in any money ; but of
course not a scrap of it will be wasted ; but
what is left over and gets too dry to sell, we
ehall have to eat."

Jerry shook his head. " We must sell it," he
said with the air of a financier. Then he went
away thoughtfully to consult Mrs. Job, and
came back triumphant. She would take for a
week at half price, all the stale cake they might
have left. "That means gingercake," he ex-
plained, " she says the cookies and things will
keep for weeks, without getting too old."

" Sure enough ! " said radiant Nettie, " I did
not think of that."

There were other things to think of; some of
them greatly perplexed Jerry ; he had to catch
many fish before they were thought out. Then
he came with his views to Nettie.

THE NEW ENTERPRISE. 375

i

"See here, do you understand about this firm
business; it must be you and me, you know?"

Nettie's bright face clouded. " Why, I
thought," she said, speaking slowly, " I thought
you said, or you meant — I mean I thought it
was to help Norm; and that he would be a
partner."

Jerry shook his head. "Can't do it," he
said decidedly. " Look here, Nettie, we'll get
into trouble right away if we take in a partner.
He believes in drinking beer, and smoking
cigarettes, and doing things of that sort ; now
if he as a partner introduces anything of the
kind, what are we to do?"

" Sure enough ! " the tone expressed convic-
tion, but not relief. " Then what are we to do,
Jerry ? I don't see how we are going to help
Norm any."

" I do ; quite as well as though he was a part-
ner. Norm is a good-natured fellow ; he likes
to help people. I think he likes to do things
for others better than for himself. If we explain
to him that we want to go into this business,
and that you can't wait on customers, because
you are a girl, and it wouldn't be the thing, and
I can't, because it is in your house, and I prom-

376 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

ised my father I would spend my evenings at
home, and write a piece of a letter to him every
evening ; and ask him to come to the rescue
and keep the room open, and sell the things for
us, don't you believe he will be twice as likely
to do it as though we made him as young as
ourselves, and tried to be his equals ? "

Then Nettie's face was bright. " What a con-
triver you are! " she said admiringly. " I think
that will do just splendidly."

She was right, it did. Norm might have
curled his lip and said " pooh " to the scheme,
had he been placed on an equality ; for he was
getting to the age when to be considered young,
or childish, is a crime in a boy's eyes. But to
be appealed to as one who could help the
" young fry " out of their dilemma, and at the
same time provide himself with a very pleasant
place to stay, and very congenial employment
while he stayed, was quite to Norm's mind.

And as it was an affair of the children's, he
made no suggestions about beer or cigars ; it is
true he thought of them, but he thought at
once that neither Nettie or Jerry would proba-
bly have anything to do with them, and as he
had no dignity to sustain, he decided to not

THB NEW ENTERPRISE. 377

even mention the matter. These two planned
really better than they knew in appealing to
Norm for help. His curious pride would never
have allowed him to say to a boy, " We keep
cakes and coffee for sale at our house ; come in
and try them." But it was entirely within the
line of his ideas of respectability to say : " What
do you think those two young ones over at our
house have thought up next ? They have opened
an eating-house, cakes and things such as my
sister can make, and coffee, dirt cheap. I've
promised to run the thing for them in the even-
ing awhile; I suppose you'll patronize them?"

And the boys, who would have sneered at hia
setting himself up in business, answered :
"What, the little chap who lives at Smith's?"
And your little sister ! Ho ! what a notion !
I don't know but it is a bright one, though, as
sure as you live. There isn't a spot in this
town where a fellow can get a decent bite un-
less he pays his week's wages for it ; boys, let's
go around and see what the little chaps are
about."

The very first evening was a success.

Nettie had assured herself that she must not
be disappointed if no one came, at first

378 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

" You see, it is a new thing," she explained
to her mother, " of course it will take them a
little while to get acquainted with it ; if nobody
at all comes to-night, I shall not be disappointed.
Shall you, Jerry?"

" Why, yes," said Jerry, " I should ; because I
know of one boy who is coming, and is going
to have a ginger-snap and .a glass of milk. And
that is little Ted Locker who lives down the
lane; they about starve that boy. I shall like
to see him get something good. He has three
cents and I assured him he could get a brim-
ming glass of milk and a ginger-snap for that.
He was as delighted as possible."

" Poor fellow ! " said Nettie, " I mean to tell
Norm to let him have two snaps, wouldn't
you ? "

And Jerry agreed, not stopping to explain
that he had furnished the three cents with which
Ted was to treat his poor little stomach. So
the work began in benevolence.

Still Nettie was anxious, not to say nervous.

"You will have to eat soft gingerbread at
your house, for breakfast, dinner and supper, I
am afraid," she said to Jerry with a half laugh,
as they stood looking at it. " I don't know why

THE NEW ENTERPRISE. 379

I made four tins of it ; I seemed to get in a
gale when I was making it."

"Never you fear," said Jerry, cheerily. "I'll
be willing to eat such gingerbread as that three
times a day for a week. Between you and me,"
lowering his voice, " Sarah Ann can't make very
good gingerbread ; when we get such a run of
custom that we have none left over to sell, I
wish you'd teach her how."

I do not know that any member of the two
households could be said to be more interested
in the new enterprise than Mr. Decker. He
helped set up the shelves, and he made a little
corner shelf on purpose for the lamp, and he
watched the entire preparations with an interest
which warmed Nettie's heart. I haven't said
anything about Mr. Decker during these days,
because I found it hard to say. You are ac-
quainted with him as a .sour-faced, unreasonable,
beer-drinking man ; when suddenly he became
a man who said " Good morning " when he came
into the room, and who sat down smooth shaven,
and with quiet eyes and smile to his breakfast,
and spoke gently to Susie when she tipped her
cup of water over, and kissed little Sate when
he lifted her to her seat, and waited for Mrs.

380 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

Decker to bring the coffee pot, then bowed his
head and in clear tones asked a blessing on the
food, how am I to describe him to you ? The
change was something which even Mrs. Decker
who watched him every minute he was in the
house and thought of him all day long, could
not get accustomed to. ^It astonished her so
to think that she, Mrs. Decker, lived in a house
where there was a prayer made every night and

*

morning, and where each evening after supper
Nettie read a few verses in the Bible, and her
father prayed ; that every time she passed her
own mother's Bible which had been brought out
of its hiding-place in an old trunk, she said,
under her breath, "Thank the Lord." No, she
did not understand it, the marvelous change
which had come over her husband. She had
known him as a kind man ; he had been that
when she married him, and for a few months
afterwards.

She had heard him speak pleasantly to Norm,
and show him much attention ; he had dond
it before they were married, and for awhile
afterwards ; but there was a look in his face,
and a sound in his voice now, such as she had
never seen nor heard before.

THE NEW ENTERPRISE. 381

" It isn't Decker," she said in a burst of con-
fidence to Nettie. " He is just as good as he
can be ; and I don't know anything in the world
he ain't willing to do for me, or for any of us ;
and it is beautiful, the whole of it ; but it is all
new. I used to think if the man I married
could only come back to me I should be per-
fectly happy ; but I don't know this man at all;
he seems to me sometimes most like an angel."

Probably you would have laughed at this.
Joe Decker did not look in the least like the
picture you have in your mind of an angel •
but perhaps if you had known him only a few
weeks before, as Mrs. Decker did, and could
have seen the wonderful change in him which
she saw, the contrast might even have suggested
angels.

Nettie understood it. She struggled with
her timidity and her ignorance of just what
ought to be said ; then she made her earnest
reply :

" Mother, I'll tell you the difference. Father
prays, and when people pray, you know, and
mean it, as he does, they get to looking very
different."

But Mrs. Decker did not pray.

CHAPTER XXII.

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE.

A S a matter of fact there wasn't a cake
-*- left. Neither doughnut nor gingersnap ;
hardly a crumb to tell the successful tale.
Nettie surveyed the empty shelves the next
morning in astonishment. She had been too
busy the night before to realize how fast things
were going. Naturally the number and variety
of dishes in the Decker household was limited
and the evening to Nettie was a confused
murmur of, "Hand us some more cups."
" Can't you raise a few more teaspoons some-
where ? " " Give us another plate," or, " More
doughnuts needed ; " and Nettie flew hither and
thither, washed cups, rinsed spoons, said, " What
did I do with that towel?" or, "Where in the
world is the bread knife ? " or, " Oh ! I smell
the coffee ! maybe it is boiling over," and was
conscious of nothing but weariness and relief
382

TOO GOOD TO BE TBUE. 383

when the last cup of coffee was drank, and the
last teaspoon washed.

But with the next morning's sunshine she
knew the opening was a success. She counted
the gains with eager joy, assuring Jerry that
they could have twice as much gingerbread next
time.

" And you'll need it," said Norm. " I had to
tell half a dozen boys that there wasn't a crumb
left. I felt sorry for 'em, too ; they were board-
ing-house fellows who never get anything decent
to eat."

Already Norm had apparently forgotten that
he was one who used frequently to make a simi-
lar complaint.

There was a rarely sweet smile on Nettie's
face, not born of the chink in the factory bag
which she had made for the money ; it grew
from the thought that she need not hide the bag
now, and tremble lest it should be taken to the
saloon to pay for whiskey. What a little time
ago it was that she had feared that ! What a
changed world it was !

"But there won't be such a crowd again,"
she said as they were putting the room in order,
u that was the first night."

384 LITTLE FISHEES: AND THEIR NETS.

"Humph!" said that wise woman Susie with
a significant toss of her head ; " last night you
said we mustn't expect anybody because it was
the first night."

Then "the firm" had a hearty laugh at Net-
tie's expense and set to work preparing for even-
ing.

I am not going to tell you the story of that
summer and fall. It was beautiful ; as any of
the Deckers will tell you with eager eyes and
voluble voice if you call on them, and start the
subject.

The business grew and grew, and exceeded
their most sanguine expectations. Mr. Decker
interested himself in it most heartily, and
brought often an old acquaintance to get a cup
of coffee. " Make it good and strong," he
would say to Nettie in an earnest whisper.
"He's thirsty, and I brought him here instead
of going for beer. I wish the room was larger,
and I'd get others to come."

In time, and indeed in a very short space of
time, this grew to be the crying need of the
firm : " If we only had more room, and more
dishes! " There was a certain long, low building
which had once been used as a boarding-house

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. 385

for the factory hands, before that institution
grew large and moved into new quarters, and
which was not now in use. At this building
Jerry and Nettie, and for that matter, Norm,
looked with longing eyes. They named it " Our
Rooms," and hardly ever passed that they did
not suggest some improvement in it which could
be easily made, and which would make it just
the thing for their business. They knew just
what sort of curtains they would have at the
the windows, just what furnishings in front and
back rooms, just how many lamps would be
needed. " We will have a hanging lamp over
the centre table," said Jerry. " One of those
new-fashioned things which shine and give a
bright light, almost like gas ; and lots of books
and papers for the boys to read."

"But where would we get the books and
papers?" would Nettie say, with an anxious
business face, as though the room, and the
table, and the hanging lamp, were arranged for,
and the last-mentioned articles all that were'
needed to complete the list.

" Oh ! they would gather, little by little. I
know some people who would donate great
piles of them if we had a place to put them.

386 LITTLE FISHEES .' AND THEIR NETS.

For that matter, as it is, father is going to send
us some picture-papers, a great bundle of them ;
send them by express, and we must have a table
to put them on."

So the plans grew, but constantly they looked
at the long, low building and said what a nice
place it would be.

One morning Jerry came across the yard with
a grave face. "What do you think?" he said,
the moment he caught sight of Nettie. " They
have gone and rented our rooms for a horrid
old saloon ; whiskey in front, and gambling in
the back part ! Isn't it a shame that they have
got ahead of us in that kind of way ? "

" Oh dear me ! " said Nettie, drawing out each
•word to twice its usual length, and sitting down
on a corner of the woodbox with hands clasped
over the dish towel, and for the moment a look
on her face as though all was lost.

But it was the very same day that Jerry
appeared again, his face beaming. This time it
was hard to make Nettie hear, for Mrs. Decker
was washing, and mingling with the rapid rub-
a-dub of the clothes was the sizzle of ham in
the spider, and the bubble of a kettle which
was bent on boiling over, and making the half-

TOO GOO1> TO BE TRUE. 387

distracted housekeeper all the trouble it could.
Yet his news was too good to keep; and he
shouted above the din : " I say, Nettie, the man
has backed out! Our rooms are not rented,
after all."

" Goody! " said Nettie, and she smiled on the
kettle in a way to make it think she did not
care if everything in it boiled over on the floor ;
whereupon it calmed down, of course, and be-
haved itself.

So the weeks passed, and the enterprise grew
and flourished. I hope you remember Mrs.
Speckle ? Very early in the autumn she sent
every one of her chicks out into the world to
toil for themselves and began business. Each
morning a good-sized, yellow-tinted, warm, beau-
tiful egg lay in the nest waiting for Jerry ; and
when he came, Mrs. Speckle cackled the news
to him in the most interested way.

" She couldn't do better if she were a regu-
larly constituted member of the firm with a
share in the profits," said Jerry.

The egg was daily carried to Mrs. Farley's,
where there was an invalid daughter, who had
a fancy for that warm, plump egg which came
to her each morning, done up daintily in pink

388 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

cotton, and laid in a box just large enough for
it. But there came a morning which was a
proud one to Nettie. Jerry had returned from
Mrs. Farley's with news. " The sick daughter
is going South; she has an auntie who is to
spend the winter in Florida, so they have de-
cided to send her. They start to-morrow morn-
ing. Mrs. Farley said they would take our
eggs all the same, and she wished Miss Helen
could have them ; but somebody else would
have to eat them for her."

Then Nettie, beaming with pleasure, " Jerry,
I wish you would tell Mrs. Farley that we can't
spare them any more at present ; I would have
told you before, but I didn't want to take the
egg from Miss Helen ; I want to buy them
now, every other morning, for mother and
father ; mother thinks there is nothing nicer
than a fresh egg, and I know father will be
pleased."

What satisfaction was in Nettie's voice,
what joy in her heart ! Oh ! they were poor,
very poor, " miserably poor " Lorena Barstow
called them, but they had already reached the
point where Nettie felt justified in planning for
a fresh egg apiece for father and mother, and

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. 389

knew that it could be paid for. So Mrs. Speckle
began from that day to keep the results of her
industry in the home circle, and grew more
important because of that.

Almost every day now brought surprises. One
of the largest of them was connected with Susie
Decker. That young woman from the very first
had shown a commendable interest in everything
pertaining to the business. She patiently did
errands for it, in all sorts of weather, and was
always ready to dust shelves, arrange cookies
without eating so much as a bite, and even wipe
teaspoons, a task which she used to think be-
neath her. " If you can't trust me with things
that would smash," she used to say with scorn-
ful gravity, to Nettie, " then you can't expect
me to be willing to wipe those tough spoons."

But in these days, spoons were taken uncom-
plainingly. Susie had a business head, and was
already learning to count pennies and add them
to the five and ten cent pieces; and when Jerry
said approvingly : " One of these days, she will
be our treasurer," the faintest shadow of a
blush would appear on Susie's face, but she
always went on counting gravely, with an air
of one who had not heard a word.

390 LITTLE FISHEKS: AND THEIR NETS.

On a certain stormy, windy day, one of
November's worst, it was discovered late in the
afternoon that the molasses jug was empty, and
the boys had been promised some molasses candy
that very evening.

" What shall we do ? " asked Nettie, looking
perplexed, and standing jug in hand in the mid-
dle of the room. "Jerry won't be home in
time to get it, and I can't leave those cakes to
bake themselves; mother, you don't think you
could see to them a little while till I run to the
grocery, do you?"

Mrs. Decker shook her head, but spoke sympa-
thetically : " I'd do it in a minute, child, or I'd
go for the molasses, but these shirts are very
particular; I never had such fine ones to iron
before, and the irons are just right, and if I
should have to leave the bosoms at the wrong
minute to look at the cakes, why, it would spoil
the bosoms; and on the other hand, if I left
the cakes and saved the bosoms, why, they would
be spoiled."

This seemed logical reasoning. Susie, perched
on a high chair in front of the table, was count-
ing a large pile of pennies, putting them in
heaps of twenty-five cents each. She waited

TOO GOOD TO BE TKUE. 391

until her fourth heap was complete, then looked
up. " Why don't you ask me to go? "

" Sure enough ! " said Nettie, laughing, " I'd
* ask ' you in a minute if it didn't rain so hard ;
but it seems a pretty stormy day to send out a
little chicken like you."

" I'm not a chicken, and I'm not the least-
est bit afraid of rain ; I can go as well as not if
you only think so."

" I don't believe it will hurt her ! " said Mrs.
Decker, glancing doubtfully out at the sullen
sky. "It doesn't rain so hard as it did, and she
has such a nice thick sack now."

It was nice, made of heavy waterproof cloth,
with a lovely woolly trimming going all around
it. Susie liked that sack almost better than
anything else in the world. Her mother had
bought it second-hand of a woman whose little
girl had outgrown it; the mother had washed
all day and ironed another day to pay for it, and
felt the liveliest delight in seeing Susie in the
pretty garment.

The rain seemed to be quieting a little, so
presently the young woman was robed in sack
and waterproof bonnet with a cape, and started
on her way.

392 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIE NETS.

Half-way to the grocery she met Jerry has-
tening home from school with a bag of books
slung across his shoulder.

" Is it so late as that ? " asked Susie in dis-
may. "Nettie thought you wouldn't be at
home in a good while; the candy won't get
done."

" No, it is as early as this," he answered laugh-
ing ; " we were dismissed an hour earlier than
usual this afternoon. Where are you going?
after molasses ? See here, suppose you give me
the jug and you take my books and scud home.
There is a big storm coming on ; I think the
wind is going to blow, and I'm afraid it will
twist you all up and pour the molasses over
you. Then you'd be ever so sticky ! "

Susie laughed and exchanged not unwillingly
the heavy jug for the books. There had been
quite wind enough since she started, and if
there was to be more, she had no mind to brave
it.

" If you hurry," called Jerry, " I think you'll
get home before the next squall comes." So
she hurried ; but Jerry was mistaken. The
squall came with all its force, and poor small
Susie was twisted and whirled and lost her

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. 893

breath almost, and panted and struggled on, and
was only too thankful that she hadn't the molas-
ses jug.

Nearly opposite the Farley home, their side
door suddenly opened and a pleasant voice
called : " Little girl, come in here, and wait
until the shower is over ; you will be wet to the
skin."

It is true Susie did not believe that her water-
proof sack could be wet through, but that
dreadful wind so frightened her, twisting the
trees as it did, that she was glad to obey the
kind voice and rush into shelter.

" Why, it is Nettie's sister, I do believe ! "
said Ermina Farley, helping her off with the
dripping hood.

" You dear little mouse, what sent you out in
such a storm ? "

Miss Susie not liking the idea of being a
mouse much more than she did being a chicken,
answered with dignity, and becoming brevity.

"Molasses candy!" said Mrs. Farley, laugh-
ing,' yet with an undertone of disapproval in
her voice which keen-minded Susie heard and
felt, " I shouldn't think that was a necessity of
life on such a day as this."

394 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR KETS.

" It is if you have promised it to some boys
who don't ever have anything nice only what
they get at our house ; and who save their pen-
nies that they spend on beer, and cider, and
cigars to get it."

Wise Susie, indignation in every word, yet
well controlled, and aware before she finished
her sentence that she was deeply interesting her
audience! How they questioned her? What
was this ? Who did it ? Who thought of it ?
When did they begin it? Who came? How
did they get the money to buy their things?
Susie, thoroughly posted, thoroughly in sympa-
thy with the entire movement, calm, collected,
keen far beyond her years, answered clearly
and well. Plainly she saw that this lady in a
silken gown was interested.

"Well, if this isn't a revelation!" said Mrs.
Farley at last. "A young men's Christian
association not only, but an eating-house flour-
ishing right in our midst and we knowing noth-
ing about it. Did you know anything of it,
daughter ? "

"No, ma'am," said Ermina. "But I knew
that splendid Nettie was trying to do something
for her brother ; and that nice boy who used to

TOO GOOD TO BE TBtTE. 895

bring eggs was helping her ; it is just like them
both. I don't believe there is a nicer girl in
town than Nettie Decker."

Mrs. Farley seemed unable to give up the
subject. She asked many questions as to how
long the boys stayed, and what they did all the
time.

Susie explained : " Well, they eat, you know ;
and Norm doesn't hurry them ; he says they
have to pitch the things down fast where they
board, to keep them from freezing ; and our
room is warm, because we keep the kitchen
door open, and the heat goes in ; but we don't
know what we shall do when the weather gets
real cold ; and after they have eaten all the
things they can pay for, they look at the pict-
ures. Jerry's father sends him picture papers,
and Mr. Sherrill brings some, most every day.
Miss Sherrill is coming Thanksgiving night to
sing for them ; and Nettie says if we only had
an organ she would play beautiful music. We
want to give them a treat for Thanksgiving;
we mean to do it without any pay at all if we
can ; and father thinks we can, because he is
working nights this week, and getting extra
pay ; and Jerry thinks there will be two chick-

396 LITTLE FISHERS ! AND THEIR NETS.

ens ready ; and Nettie wishes we could have an
organ for a little while, just for Norm, because
he loves music so, but of course we can't."

Long before this sentence was finished,
Ermina and her mother had exchanged glances
which Susie, being intent on her story, did not
see.

She was a wise little woman of business ;
what if Mrs. Farley should say : " Well, I will
give you a chicken myself for the Thanksgiving
time, and a whole peck of apples!" then in-
deed, Susie believed that their joy would be
complete ; for Nettie had said, if they could
only afford three chickens she believed that
with a lot of crust she could make chicken pie
enough for them each to have a large piece, hot ;
not all the boys, of course, but the seven or
eight who worked in Norm's shop and boarded
at the dreary boarding-house; they would so
like to give Norm a surprise for his birthday,
and have a treat say at six o'clock for all of
these ; for this year Thanksgiving fell on Norm's
birthday. The storm held up after a little, and
Susie, trudging home, a trifle disgusted with
Mrs. Farley because she said not a word about
the peck of apples or the other chicken, was met

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. 397

by Jerry coming in search of her. The molassea
was boiling over, he told her, and so was her
mother, with anxiety lest the wind had taken
her, Susie, up in a tree, and had forgotten to
bring her down again. He hurried her home
between the squalls, and Susie quietly resolved
to say not a word about all the things she had
told at the Farley home. What if Nettie should
think she hadn't been womanly to talk so much
about what they were doing ! If there was one
thing that this young woman had a horror of
during these days, it was that Nettie would
think she was not womanly. The desire, nay,
the determination to be so, at all costs had well
nigh cured her of her fits of rage and scream-
ing, because in one of her calm moments Nettie
had pointed out to her the fact that she never
in her life heard a woman scream like that.
Susie being a logical person, argued the rest of
the matter out for herself, and resolved to
scream and stamp her foot no more.

Great was the astonishment of the Decker
family, next morning. Mrs. Farley herself came
to call on them. She wanted some plain iron-
ing done that afternoon. Yes, Mrs. Decker
would do it and be glad to ; it was a leisure

398 LITTLE FISHBKS: AND THEIR NETS.

afternoon with her. Mrs. Farley wanted some-
thing more ! she wanted to know about the
business in which Nettie and her young friend
next door were engaged ; and Susie listened
breathlessly, for fear it would appear that she
had told more than she ought. But Mrs. Far-
ley kept her own counsel, only questioning Net-
tie closely, and at last she made a proposition
that had well nigh been the ruin of the tin of
cookies which Nettie was taking from the oven.
She dropped the tin !

"Did you burn you, child?" asked Mrs.
Decker, rushing forward.

" No, ma'am," said Nettie, laughing, and try-
ing not to laugh, and wanting to cry, and being
too amazed to do so. " But I was so surprised
and so almost scared, that they dropped.

" O Mrs. Farley, we have wanted that more
than anything else in the world ; ever since
Mr. Sherrill saw how my brother Norman
loved music, and said it might be the saving of
him ; Jerry and I have planned and planned,
but we never thought of being able to do it for
a long, long time."

Yet all this joy was over an old, somewhat
wheezy little house organ which stood in the

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. 399

second-story unused room of Mrs. Farley's
house, and which she had threatened to send
to the city auction rooms to get out of the
way.

She offered to lend it to Nettie for her
" Rooms," and Nettie's gratitude was so great
that the blood seemed inclined to leave her
face entirely for a minute, then thought better
of it and rolled over it in waves.

CHAPTER XXIIL

THE CROWNING WONDEB.

A

NT) they did have the Thanksgiving sup-

per!

It seemed wonderful to Nettie, even then,
and long afterwards the wonder grew, that
so many things occurred about that time to
help the scheme along. At first it was to be
a very simple little affair; two of the boys,
Rick for instance, and Alf, invited to come in
an hour or so before the room was open for
the evening, and have a little supper by them-
selves— a chicken, and possibly some cran-
berry sauce if she could compass it, though
cranberries were very expensive at that season,
and besides, they ate sugar in a way which was
perfectly alarming ! A pie of some sort she had
quite set her heart on, but whether it would be
pumpkin or not, depended on how they succeeded
in saving up for extra milk. The circumstances
400

THE CROWNING WONDER. 401

of the Deckers were changing steadily, but when
a man has tumbled to the foot of a hill, and
lain there quite awhile, it is generally a slow
process to get up and climb back to where he
was before.

Mr. Decker's wages were good, and in time
he expected to be able to support his family in
at least ordinary comfort; but when he came
fully to his senses, he stood for awhile appalled
before the number of things which had been
sold to pay his bill at the saloon, and the num-
ber of things which in the meantime had worn
out, and not been replaced by new ones ; then
the rent was two months back, and Job Smith
had been all that stood between him and a home.
There was a great deal to do if the Deckers
were to get back to the place from which they
began to roll down hill ; so extra expenses for
cranberries, or even milk, were not to be thought
of, if they must be drawn from the family funds.

The business of the firm was flourishing ; but
you must remember that the central feature of
the enterprise was to keep prices very low, lower
than beer and bad cigars, and the enterprise of
the dealers in these things is so great, that if
you are willing to put up with the meanest sorts

402 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIE NETS.

you can always get them very low indeed. To
compete with them, Jerry and Nettie had to
study the most rigid economy to keep their
shelves supplied, and even to sometimes " shut
their eyes and make a reckless dash at apples or
peanuts, regardless of expense." This was the
way in which Jerry occasionally apologized for
an extra quantity of these luxuries.

Still, in the most interesting ways the Thanks-
giving supper grew. Mrs. Decker secured with-
in a week of the time, an unexpected ironing
which she could do in two evenings, and she
it was who proposed the wild scheme of having
two chickens and having them hot, and stuffing
them with bread crumbs as she used to do years
ago, and having gravy and some baked potatoes.
She agreed to furnish the extra potatoes, and a
few turnips, just to make it feel like Thanksgiv-
ing. Nettie was astonished, but pleased. It
would be more work, but what of that ? Think
of being able to make a real supper for Norm's
birthday! Then Mrs. Smith at just the right
moment had a present of two pumpkins from
her country friends ; a« they could never make
away with two pumpkins before they would
spoil, of course the Deckers must take part of

THE CROWNING WONDEE. 403

one, at least. About that time the minister
bought a cow, and what did he do but come
himself one night to know if Mrs. Decker had
any use for skimmed milk ; they were very fond
of cream at their house, and skimmed milk gath-
ered faster than they knew what to do witli it.

" Any use for skim milk ! " Mrs. Decker
could only repeat the words in a kind of ecstasy
at her good luck, and she almost wondered that
the yellow pumpkin standing behind the door
in the closet did not laugh outright.

But the crowning wonder came, after all, on
the morning before the eventful day. Jake, the
Parleys' man of all work, brought it in a basket
which was large and closely covered, and very
heavy looking. It was left at the door with
Susie, who went to answer the knock, " For
Miss Nettie." Susie repeated the name with a
lingering tone as though she liked the sound
of the unusual prefix. Then they gathered
about the basket. A great solemn-looking tur-
key with a note in his mouth, which said : " A
Thanksgiving token for Nettie, from her friend
ERMIKA FARLEY."

A turkey in the Decker oven ! Mr. Decker
surveyed the great fellow in silence for a few

404 LITTLE FISHEES: AND THEIR NETS.

minutes, then said impressively, "If we don't
have a new cook stove before another Thanks-
giving day comes around, my name is not
Decker."

Mrs. Job Smith left her pies half-made, and
ran in, in a friendly way, to see the wonder ;
and at once remarked that he would exactly fit
into their oven, and she wasn't going to cook
their turkey till the day afterwards, because
they had got to go to Job's uncle's for Thanks-
giving ; so that matter was settled. It was
then that the Deckers decided to make a reck-
less plunge into society and invite every boy in
Norm's shop^to a three o'clock dinner, with tur-
key and cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie and
turnip, and all the rest.

What a day it was ! They grew nearly wild
in their efforts to keep all the secrets from
Norm, and act as though nothing unusual was

i O O

happening. Especially was this the case after
the morning express brought a package for Net-
tie from her dear old home, with two mince
pies, and a box of Auntie Marshall's doughnuts,
and a bag of nuts, and as much as two pounds
of the loveliest candy she ever saw ; sent by the
young man of the home who was clerk in a whole-

THE CROWNING WONDEB. 405

sale confectioner's. It took Mrs. Decker and
Kettle not five minutes to resolve, looking curi-
ously into each other's faces the while to see if
they really had become insane, that they would
have a regular dessert following the dinner !

" It is only once a year," said Nettie apolo-
getically.

"It is only once in five years!" said Mrs.
Decker solemnly. " I haven't had a Thanks-
giving in five years, child ; and I never expected
to have another."

Everybody was busy all day long. Mrs.
Smith was in and out, helping as faithfully as
though Norm was her boy, and Sarah Ann just
gave herself up to the importance of the occasion,
and did not go to her uncle's at all. " I can go
there any time," she said good naturedly, "or
no time; they always forget that we are alive till
Thanksgiving Day, and then they ask us because
they kind of think they've got to. Uncle Jed is
a clerk, and his wife makes dresses for the folks
on Belmont street, and they feel stuck up four
feet above us ; I'd rather eat cold pork and pota-
toes at home than to go there any day. I'm
dreadful glad of an excuse that father thinks is
worth giving."

406 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

Susie was a young woman of importance that
day. Nettie, who had discovered exactly how
to manage her, gave her work to do which suited
her ideas of what a grown person like herself
ought to be about; and when she wanted the
table cleared from the picture papers of the
night before, instead of telling Miss Susie to fold
them away, said, " What do you think, Susie,
would it be best for us to fold these papers away
in the closet for to-day, and have this table left
clear for the nuts and the candies? "

" Yes," said Susie, with her grown-up air, " I
think it would ; I'll attend to it." And she did
it beautifully.

"It is well we have no little bits of folks
around," said Nettie, when the nuts were being
cracked, " they would be tempted to eat some,
and then I'm afraid we would not have enough
to go around." And Susie, gravely assenting to
this theory, arranged the nuts in Mrs. Smith's
blue saucers, an equal number in each, and ate
not one !

Little Sate went with Jerry to give the invi-
tations to the boys, and to charge them to keep
the whole thing a profound secret from Norm ;
they came home by way of the Farley woods,

THE CROWNING WONDEB. 407

and little Sate appeared at the door with her
arms laden with such lovely branches of autumn
leaves, that Nettie exclaimed in wild delight,
and left her turnips half-pealed to help adorn
the walls of the front room. This suggested
the idea, and by three o'clock that room was a
bower of beauty. Red and golden and lovely
brown leaves mixed in with the evergreen tas-
sels of the pines, witli here and there pine cones,
and red berries peeping out from everywhere.
" You little darling," said Nettie, kissing Sate,
" you have made a picture of it, like what they
paint on canvas, only a thousand times lovelier."

And Sate, looking on, with her wide sweet
eyes aglow with feeling, fitted the picture well.

So the feast was spread, and the astonished
and hungry boys came, and feasted. And
Norm, too astonished at first to take it in, began
presently to understand that all this prepara-
tion and delight were in honor of his birthday !
And though he said not a word, aloud, he kept
up in las soul a steady line of thought ; the cen-
tre of which was this :

" I don't deserve it, that's a fact ; there's
mother doing everything for me, and Nettie
working like a slave, and the children going

408 LITTLE FISHERS : ANT) THEIR NETS.

without things to give me a treat. I'll be in a
better fix to keep a birthday before it gets
around again, see if I'm not ! "

His was not the only thinking which was done
that day. Rick, merry enough all the afternoon,
and enjoying his dinner as well as it was possi-
ble for a hungry fellow to do, nevertheless had
a sober look on his face more than once, and
said as he shook hands with Norm at night :
" I'll tell you what it is, my boy, if I had your
kind of a home, and folks, I'd be worth some-
thing in the world ; I would, so. I ain't sure,
between you and me, but I shall, anyhow; just
for the sake of getting into sueh Thanksgiving
houses once in awhile. By and by a fellow will
have to carry himself pretty straight, or that
sister of yours won't have nothing to do with
him ; I can see that in her eyes."

Then he went home. And cold though his
room- was he sat down, even after he had pulled
off his coat, as a memory of some thoughtful
word of Nettie's came over him, and went all
over it again; then he brought his hard hand
down with a thud on the rickety table, on
which he leaned and said : " As sure as you live,
and breathe the breath of life, old fellow, you've

THE CROWNING WONDER. 409

got to turn over a new leaf ; and you've got to
begin to-night."

It was less than a week after the Thanksgiv-
ing excitements that the town got itself roused
over something which reached even to the chil-
dren. Jerry came home from school with it,
and came directly to Nettie, his cheeks aglow
with the news. "There's to be the biggest
kind of a time here next Thursday, Nettie;
don't you think General McClintock is coming,
to give a lecture, and they are going to give him
a reception at Judge Bentley's and I don't know
what all, and the schools are all going to dismiss
and go down to the train in procession to meet
him, and they are going to sing, Hail to the
Chief, and the band is to play, See, the conquer-
ing Hero comes, and I don't know what isn't
going to be done."

" Who is General McClintock ? " said ignorant
Nettie, composedly drying her plate as though
all the generals in the world were nothing to
her. ' Then did Jerry come the nearest impa-
tience that Nettie had ever seen in him ; and he
launched forth in such a wild praise of General
McClintock and such an excited account of the
things which he had done and said, and pre-

410 LITTLE FISHEKS : AND THEIE NETS.

vented, and pushed, that Nettie was half be-
wildered and delightfully excited when he
paused for breath. Henceforth the talk of the
town was General McClintock.

" It is a wonder they asked him to speak on
temperance," said Nettie, disdain in her voice :,
she had not- a high opinion of the temperance
enthusiasm of the town in which she lived.

" They didn't," said Jerry. " He asked him-
self ; they wanted him to talk about the war, or
the tariff, or the great West, or some other
stupid thing, but he said, ' No, sir ! the great
question of the day is temperance, and I shall
speak on that, or nothing!'"

" How do you happen to know so much about
him ? " Nettie questioned one day when Jerry
was at his highest pitch of excitement.

" Ho ! " he said, almost in scorn, " I have
known about him ever since I was born ; every-
body knows General McClintock." Then Net-
tie felt meek and ignorant.

Nothing had ever so excited Jerry as the
coming of the hero ; and indeed the town gen-
erally seemed to have caught fire. General
McClintock seemed to be the theme of every
tongue. Connected with these days, Nettie

THE CROWNING WONDER. 411

had her perplexities and her sorrows. In the
first place, Jerry was obstinately determined
that she should join the procession with him to
meet General McClintock. In vain she protested
that she did not belong to the public schools.
He did, he said, and that was enough.

Then when Nettie urged and almost cried, he
had another plan : " Well, then, we won't go as
scholars. We'll go ahead, as private individu-
als; I'm only a kind of a scholar, anyhow, just
holding on for a few weeks till my father comes ;
we'll go up there early and get a good place be-
fore the procession forms and see the whole of
it. I know the marshal real well ; he's a good
friend of mine, and I know he will give us a
place."

It was of no use for Nettie to protest ; to
remind him that the girls would think she was
putting herself forward, to say that she had
nothing to wear to such a gathering. She might
as well have talked to a stone for all the impres-
sion she made. She had never seen him so reso-
lute to have his own way. He did not care
what she wore, it made not the slightest differ-
ence to him what the girls said, and he did ask
it of her as a kindness to him, and he should be

412 LITTLE FISHEES .* AND THEIR NETS.

hurt so that he could never get over it if she re-
fused to go ; he had never wanted anything so
much in his life, and he could not give it up. So
Nettie, reluctant, sorrowful, promised, and cried
over it^in her room that night. She wanted to
please Jerry, for his father was coming now in a
few weeks perhaps, and Jerry would go away
with him, and she should- never see him again ;
and what in the world would she do without
him? And here she cried harder than ever.
Then came up that dreadful question of
clothes ; her one winter dress was too short and
too narrow and a good deal worn. Auntie Mar-
shall had thought last winter that it would
hardly do for a church dress, and here it was

still her best. There was no such thing as a

«
new one for the present ; for mother had not

had anything in so long, she must be clothed,
and Nettie was willing to wait ; but she was
not willing to take a conspicuous place on a
public day and be stared at and talked about.

However, Jerry continued merciless t.o the
very last ; nothing else would satisfy him. He
hurried her in a breathless state down the hill
to the platform, smiled and nodded to his
friend the marshal, who nodded back in the

THE CROWNING WONDEB. 413

most confidential manner, and perched them on
the corner of the temporary platform, right be-
hind the reception committee ! It was every
whit as disagreeable as Nettie had planned that
it should be. Of course Lorena Barstow was
among the leaders in the young people's proces-
sion, and of course she contrived to get enough
to be heard, and to say in a most unnecessarily
loud voice :

"Do look at that Decker girl perched up
there on the platform. If she doesn't contrive
to make herself a laughing stock everywhere !
Girls, look at her hat; she must have worn it
ever since they came out of the ark. What busi-
ness is she here, anyway? She doesn't belong
to the schools?"

There was much more in the same vein ; much
pushing and crowding, and laughing and hate-
ful speeches about folks who crowded in where
they didn't belong, and poor Nettie, the tears
only kept back by force of will, looked in vain
for sympathy into Jerry's fairly dancing eyes.
What ailed the boy ? She had never seen him
so almost wild with eager excitement before.
Judge Barstow and Dr. Lewis were both on the
reception committee, of course, and under cover

414 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIE NETS.

of this, their daughters wedged their way to the
front, and whispered to the fathers. Loud
whispers :

" Papa, that ridiculous Decker girl and the
little Irish boy with her ought not to be
perched up there in that conspicuous place.
She doesn't belong here, anyway; she isn't a
scholar."

Then Judge Barstow in good-humored tones
to Jerry : " My boy, don't you think you would
find it quite as pleasant down there among the
others? This little girl doesn't want to be up
here, I am sure ; suppose you both go down
and fall behind the procession? You can see
the General when the carriage passes ; it is to be
thrown open so every one can see."

Then the marshal: "If you please, Judge
Barstow, it won't do for them to try to get
through now. The crowd is so great they might
be hurt; there is plenty of room where they
stand. They will do 710 harm."

Now the tears must come from the indignant
eyes. No, they shall not. Jerry doesn't even
wink. He only laughs, in the highest good
humor. Has Jerry gone wild with excitement ?
" It will all be over in two minutes," explains

THE CR6WNING WONDER. 415

Judge Barstow. a He wished to drive directly
to his hotel, and have perfect quiet for two
hours. He declined to be entertained at a pri-
vate house, or to say a word at the depot. I
suppose he is fatigued, and doesn't like to trust
his voice to speak in the open air ; so the com-
mittee are to shake hands with him as rapidly
as possible, and show him to his carriage, and
not wait on him for two hours. He has ordered
a private dinner at the Keppler House.5*

Suddenly there is the whistle of the train, the
band plays See, the conquering Hero comes!
With the second strain the train comes to a halt,
and a tall, broad-shouldered man with iron gray
hair and a military air all about him steps from
the platform amid the cheers of thousands.
Now indeed there was some excuse for Lorena
Barstow's loud exclamations of disapproval !
There was Jerry, pushing his way among the
throng, holding so firmly all the while to Net-
tie's hand that escape was impossible — pushing
even past the reception committee, notwithstand-
ing the detaining hand of Judge Barstow, who
says,

" See here, my boy, you are impudent, did
you know it?"

416 LITTLE FISHEBS: AND 'THEIR NETS.

"I beg pardon," says Jerry respectfully,
but he slips past him, just as General McClin-
tock with courteous words is thanking the com-
mittee of reception, declining their pressing per-
sonal invitations, his eyes meantime roving over
the crowd in search of something or somebody.
Suddenly they melt with a tenderness which
does not belong to the soldier, and the firm lips
quiver as his voice says : " O my boy ! " and
Jerry the Irish boy flings himself into General
McClintock's arms, and the world stands agape !

Just a second, and his hand holds firmly to
the sack which covers Nettie's startled frightened
form, then he releases himself and turns to her :
"Father, this is Nettie! "

" Sure enough ! " said the General, and his tall
head bends and the mustached lips of the old
soldier touch Nettie's cheek, and the cheering,
hushed for a second, breaks forth afresh ! It is a
moment of the wildest excitement. Even then
Nettie tries to break away and is held fast. And
an officer of the day advances with the military
salute and assures the General that his carriage
is in waiting. And the General himself hands
the bewildered Nettie in, with a friendly smile
and an assuring : " Of course you must go. My

THE CROWNING WONDEB. 417

boy planned this whole thing three months ago ;
and you and I must carry out his programme to
the letter." Then Jerry springs like a cat into
the carriage, and the scholars sing, Hail to the
Chief, and the carriage, drawn by four horses,
rolls down the road made wide for it by the
homeguard in full uniform, and the General
lifts his hat and bows right and left, and smiles
on Nettie Decker sitting by his side, and almost
devours with his hungry, fatherly eyes, her
friend the Irish boy on the opposite seat. And
the scholars almost forget to sing, in their great
and ever-increasing amazement.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE PAST AND PBESENT.

"XTETTIE DECKER sat by the window of
her father's house, looking out into the
beautiful world; taking one last look at the
flowers, and the trees, and the lawn, and all the
beautiful and familiar things. Saying good-by
to them, for in a brief two hours she was to
leave them, and the old home.

She is Nettie Decker still, but you will not
be able to say that of her in another hour. She
has changed somewhat since you last saw her in
her blue gingham dress a trifle faded, or in her
brown merino much the worse for time.

To-day she is twenty years old, A lovely
summer day, and her birthday is to be celebrated
by making it her wedding day. The blue ging-
ham has been long gone ; so has the brown
merino. The dress she wears to-day looks un-
like either of them. It is white, all white ; she
418

NETTIE DECKER HAS A SUITABLE DRESS AT LAST. 419

THE PAST AND PRESENT. 419

has a suitable dress at last for a gala day. Soft,
rich, quiet white silk. Long and full and pure ;
not a touch of trimming about it anywhere*
Not even a flower yet, though she holds one in
her hand in doubt whether she will add it to the
whiteness.

I think it will probably be pushed among the
folds of soft lace which lie across her bosom ;
for that would please little Sate's artist eye, and
Nettie likes to please Sate.

While she sits there, watching the birds, and
the flowers, and thinking of the strange sweet
past, and the strange sweet present, there pass
by almost underneath the window two young
ladies ; moving slowly, glancing up curiously at
the open casement, from which Nettie draws a
little back, that she may not be seen.

" That is Nettie's room where the window is
open," says one of the ladies. " It is a lovely
room ; I was in it once when the circle met
there ; it is furnished in blue, with creamy tints
on the walls and furniture. I don't think I
ever saw a prettier room. Nettie has excellent
taste."

" Do you say her brother is to be at the wed-
ding?"

420 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

" O, yes indeed ! He came day before yester-
day ; he is a splendid-looking fellow, and smart ;
they say he is the finest student Yale has had
for years. He graduated with the very highest
honors, and now he is studying medicine. I
heard Dr. Hobart say that he would be an honor
to the profession. You ought to hear him play ;
I thought he would be a musician, he is so fond
of music, and really he plays exquisitely on the
organ. Last spring when he was home he played
in church all day, and I heard ever so many peo-
ple say they had never heard anything finer in
any church."

" I don't remember him. Was he in our set ? "

" O no ! he wasn't in any set when you were
here. Why, Irene Lewis, you must remember
the Deckers ! . They weren't in any set."

" Oh ! I remember them, of course ; don't you
know what fun we used to make of Nettie?
Didn't we call her Nan? I remember she al-
ways wore an old blue and white gingham to
Sunday-school."

" That was years ago ; she dresses beautifully
now, and in exquisite taste. She must make a
lovely bride. I should like to get a glimpse of
her."

THE PAST AND PRESENT. 421

" The McClintocks are very rich, I have been
told."

" Oil ! immensely so ; and they say General
McClintock just idolizes Nettie. I don't won-
der at that ; she is a perfectly lovely girl."

" Seems to me, Lorena, my dear, about the
time I left this part of the world you did not
think so much of her as you do now. I remem-
ber you used to make all sorts of fun of her,
and real hateful speeches, as schoolgirls will, you
know. I have a distinct recollection of a flower
party where she was, and my conscience, I re-
member, troubled me at the time for saying so
many disagreeable things about her. that after-
noon ; but I recollect I comforted myself with
the thought that you were much worse than I.
You used to lead off, in those days, you know."

" Oh ! I remember ; I was a perfect little idiot
in those days. Yes, I was disagreeable enough
to Nettie Decker; if she hadn't been a real
sweet girl she would never have forgotten it;
but I don't believe she ever thinks of it, and
really she is eo utterly changed, and all the
family are, that I hardly ever remember her as
the same girl."

"What became of that little Irish boy she

422 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIK NETS.

used to be so fond of — Jerry, his name was? "

" Now, Irene Lewis ! you don't mean to tell
me you have never heard about him! Well,
you have been out of the world, sure enough."

" I have never heard a word of him from the
time I went with Uncle Lawrence out West.
Father moved in the spring, you know, so in-
stead of my coming back early in the spring as I
expected, I never came until now ? What about
Jerry? Did he distinguish himself in any way?
I always thought him a fine-looking boy."

" That is too funny that you shouldn't know !
Why, the Irish boy, Jerry, as you call him, is
the Gerald McClintock whom Nettie Decker is
to marry at twelve o'clock to-day."

" Gerald McClintock ! How can that be ?
That boy's name was Jerry Mack."

"Indeed it wasn't. We were all deceived in
that boy. It does seem so strange that you
have never heard the story ! Why, you see, he
was General McClintock's son all the time."

" Why did he pretend he was somebody else ?"

" He didn't pretend ; or at least I heard he
said he didn't begin it. It seems that Mrs.
Smith, the car-man's wife, you know, used to
live in General MoClintock's family before his

THE PAST AND PRESENT. 423

wife died ; and Job Smith lived there as coach-
man. When they married,jGreneral McClintock
broke up housekeeping, and went South with
his family. Then Mrs. McClintock died, and
the General and this one boy boarded in New
York, and Gerald attended school. In the
spring the General was called to California on
some important law business — you know he is a
celebrated lawyer, and they say his son is going
to be even more brilliant than his father — well,
the father had to go, and the boy made him
promise that he might spend the summer vaca-
tion with Mrs. Smith out here. The McClin-
tocks had been very fond of her and her husband
and trusted them both ; so the General agreed
to it, thinking he would be back long before the
vacation closed.

" But he was delayed by one thing and another,
and the boy coaxed to stay on, and study in the
public school here ; he was a pupil in Whately
Institute at home. Imagine him taking up with
our common schools ! so he stayed until the first
of December, and then his father came.

" Such a time as that was ! You see we all

4!

knew of General McClintock, of course, and
when it was found we could get him to lecture,

424 LITTLE FISHEES: AND THEIR NETS.

the people nearly went wild over it. We
couldn't understand why we should have such
good fortune, when we knew ever so many
places — large cities — had been refused ; but it
was all explained after he came.

" It was a beautiful day when he came ; all
the schools were closed, and we formed a pro-
cession and marched to the depot, and the band
was there, and great crowds. I remember as
though it were yesterday how astonished we
were to see Nettie Decker and that boy in a con-
spicuous place on the corner of the platform.
Nettie had on her old brown merino, and looked
so queer and seemed so out of place, that I went
and spoke to father about it, and he advised them
to go down and join the procession ; but it
seems the marshal knew what he was about, and
objected to their moving. Then the train came,
and there was a great excitement, and in the
midst of it, the General almost took that boy
Jerry in his arms, and kissed and kissed him !
Then he kissed Nettie Decker, and while we
stood wondering what on earth it all meant,
they all three entered an elegant carriage drawn
by four horses, and were carried to the Keppler
House.

THE PAST AND PRESENT. 425

I

"They had an elegant private dinner, they
three ; and in fact all the time the General was
here, he kept Nettie Decker with them ; he
treated her mon* like a daughter than a stranger.
I don't think there was ever such an excitement
in this town about anything as we had at that
time ; the circumstances were so peculiar, you
know."

"But I don't understand it, yet. Why did
he call himself Jerry Mack ? What was his ob-
ject in deceiving us all ? "

" He hadn't the slightest intention of doing
so. I heard he said such a thought never en-
tered his mind until we began it. It seems
when he was a little bit of a fellow he tried to
speak his name, Gerald McClintock, and the
nearest he could approach to it, was, Jerry
Mack. Of course they thought that was cun-
ning, and it grew to be his pet name ; so before
they knew it, the servants and nil his boy friends
called him so, all the time. When he came here
Mrs. Smith and her husband naturally used the
old name; then somebody, I'm sure I don't
know who, started the story that he was an
Irish boy working at the Smiths for his board ;
and it seems he heard of it, and it amused him

426 LITTLE FISHEKS: AND THEIR NETS.

so much he decided to let people think so if
they wanted to ; he coaxed the Smiths not to
tell who he was, or why he was here ; and they
so nearly woi-shipped him, that if he had asked
them to say he was a North American Indian I
believe they would have done it. It seems he
liked Nettie Decker from the first, and was an-
noyed because she wasn't invited in our set.
But I am sure I don't know how we were to
blame ; she had nothing to wear, and how were
we to know that she was a very smart girl, and
real sweet and good ? The Deckers were very
poor, and Mr. Decker drank, you know, and
Norm was sort of a loafer, and we thought they
were real low people."

" I remember Ermina Farley was friendly
with Nettie, and with the boy, too."

" O yes, Ermina was always peculiar ; she is
yet. I have always thought that perhaps
Ermina knew something about the McClintocks,
but she says she didn't. I heard her say the
other day that somebody told her he was an Irish
boy, whose father had run away and left him ;
and the Smiths gave him a home out of pity ;
and she supposed of course it was so, and was
sorry for him. Then she always thought he was

THE PAST AND PRESENT. 427

handsome, and smart ; well, so did I, 1 must
say."

"I wonder who started that absurd story
about his father deserting him ? "

" I don't know, I'm sure ; somebody imagined
it was so, I suppose, and spoke of it ; such
things spread, you know, nobody seems to un-
derstand quite how."

" Well, as I remember things, Jerry — I shall
always call him that name, I don't believe I
could remember to say Mr. McClintock if I
should meet him now — as I remember him, he
seemed to be as poor as Nettie ; he dressed very
well, but not as a gentleman's son, and he
seemed to be contriving ways to earn little bits
of money. Don't you remember that old hen
and chickens he bought? And he used to go to
the Parleys every morning with a fresh egg for
Helen ; sold it, you know, for I was there one
morning when Mrs. Farley paid him."

"I know it; he was always contriving ways
to earn money; why, Irene, don't you remem-
ber his selling fish to Ermina Farley that day
when we were talking down by the pond? I
have always thought he heard more than we
imagined he did, that day ; I don't clearly re-

428 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIR NETS.

member what we said, but I know we were run-
ning on about Nettie Decker and about Jerry ;
I used to sort of dislike them both, because
Ermina Farley was always trying to push them
forward.

"I would give something to know exactly
what we did say that day. For awhile I did not
like to meet any of the McClintocks ; it always
seemed to me as though they were thinking
about that time. But they have been perfectly
polite and cordial to me, always ; and Nettie
Decker is a perfect lady. But I know all about
the poverty. It seems the boy Jerry had been
very fond of giving away money, and books, and
all sorts of things to people whom he thought
needed them ; and his father began to be afraid
he would have no knowledge of the value of
money, and would give carelessly, you know,
just because he felt like it. So the General had
a long talk with him, and made an arrangement
that while he was gone West, Jerry should have
nothing to give away but what he earned. He
might earn as much as he liked, or could, and
give it all away if he chose ; but not a penny
besides, and he was not to appeal to his father
to help anybody in any way whatever. Of

THE PAST AND PBESENT. 429

course the father was to pay all his bills for
necessary things — they say he paid a splendid
price to the Smiths for taking care of him. Poor
Mrs. Smith cried when he went away, as though
he bad been her own child. Well, of course
that crippled him, in his pocket money, but they
say his father was very much pleased to find
how many schemes he had started for earning
money. That plan about the business was his
from beginning to end, and just see what it has
grown to ! "

" What ? I don't know ; remember, I only
came night before last, and haven't heard any-
thing about the town since the day I left it."

" Why, the Norman House, the most elegant
hotel in town, is the outgrowth of that enter-
prise begun in the Decker's front room! Mr.
Decker owns the whole thing, now, and manages
it splendidly. His wife is a perfect genius, they
say, about managing. She oversees the house-
keeping herself, and the cooking is perfect they
say. General McClintock was so pleased with
the beginning, that he bought that long low
building on Smith street that first time he was
here, and fitted it up for Norman and Nettie to
run. He carried his son away with him, of

430 LITTLE FISHERS : AND THEIE NETS.

course, but they stayed long enough to see
that matter fairly under way. The Norman
House is managed on the same general . prin-
ciples ; strictly temperance, of course. The
General is as great a fanatic about that as the
Deckers are, and the prices are very low —
lower than other first-class houses, while the
table is better, and the rooms are beautifully
furnished. They say it is because Mrs. Decker
is such an excellent manager that they can
afford things at such low prices. Then, be-
sides, there is a lunch room for young men, where
they can get excellent things for just what they
cost; that is a sort of benevolence. General
McClintock devotes a certain amount to it
each year ; and there is a splendid young man in
charge of the room ; you saw him once, Rick
Walker, his name is. He used to be considered
a sort of hard boy, but there isn't a more re-
spected young man in town than he. He is
book-keeper at the Norman House, and has
the oversight of this Home Dining Room. You
ought to go in there ; it is very nicely furnished,
and they have flowers, plants, you know, and
birds, and a fountain, and pictures on the walls,
and for fifteen cents you can get an excellent

THE PAST AND PRESENT. 431

dinner. Everybody likes Rick Walker; they
say he has a great influence over the boys in
town, almost as great as Norman Decker ; he
used to be in charge of it all, before he went
to college."

" Still, I shouldn't think the McClintocka
would have liked Nettie Decker to be in quite
so public a place," interrupted her listener.

" Oh ! she wasn't public ; why, she went to
New York to a private school the very next win-
ter after the General came home. She boarded
with them ; the General's sister came East with
him, and was the lady of the house ; then he sent
her to Wellesley, you know. Didn't you know
that ? She graduated at Wellesley a year ago.
Yes, the McClintocks educated her, or began it ;
her father has done so well that I suppose he
hasn't needed their help lately. He is a master
builder, you know, and keeps at his business,
and owns and manages this hotel, besides. Oh !
they are well off ; you ought to see Mi's. Decker.
She is a very pretty woman, and a real lady ;
they say Nettie and Norman are so proud of
her! What was I telling you? Oh ! about the
room ; they have a library connected with it,
and a reading room, and everything complete j

432 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIB NETS.

it is Buch a nice thing for our young men. A
great many wealthy gentlemen contribute to
the library. There is a little alcove at the
further end of the reading room, where they
keep cake and lemonade, and nuts and little
things of all sorts. They are very cheap, but the
boys can't get any cigars there ; Fm so glad of
that. The Norman House is in very great
favor — quite the fashion, and it makes such a
difference with the boys who are just beginning
to imagine themselves young men, and who want
to be manly, to have an elegant place like that
frown on all such things. My brother Dick,
you remember him? He was a little fellow
when you lived here — he went into the Norman
House one day and called for a cigar; he was
just beginning to smoke, and I suppose he did
it because he thought it would sound manly. It
was in the spring when Norman was at home on
vacation, and it seems he expressed so much as-
tonishment that Dick was quite ashamed; I
don't think he has smoked a cigar since."

u The Deckers seem to be quite a centre of
interest in town."

" Well, they are. They are a sort of excep-
tional family someway j their experience has

THE PAST AND PRESENT. 433

been so romantic. Mr. Decker has become such a
nice man; Deacon Decker, he is, a prominent
man in the church, and everywhere. Oh ! do
you remember those two cunning little girls ? I
always thought they were sweet. Susie is a per-
fect lady ; she is going with Nettie and her hus-
band to Washington ; but little Sate is a beauty.
They say she is going to be a poet and an artist,
and she looks almost like an angel. General
McClintock admires her very much ; he says she
shall have the finest art teachers in Europe. I
never saw a family come up as they did, from
nothing, you may say. But then it was all ow-
ing to that fortunate accident of being friends
with Gerald McClintock, and having the Farleys
interested in them. Did I tell you Norman was
engaged to Ermina Farley? O yes! they will
marry as soon as he graduates from the medical
college, and then he will take her abroad and
take a post graduate course in medicine there.
I suppose they will take Sate with them then.
They say that is the plan. No, I certainly never
saw anything like their success in life. Mrs.
Smith doesn't believe in luck, you know, nor
much in money, though since her Job has a posi-
tion in the Norman House that pays better than

434 LITTLE FISHERS: AND THEIR NETS.

carting, they have built an addition to their
house, and, Sarah Ann says, "live like folks."
She is housekeeper at the Norman House — Mrs.
Decker's right-hand woman. Mrs. Smith says
the Lord had a great deal to do with the Decker
family ; that Nettie came home resolved to be
faithful to Him, and to trust Him to save her
father and brother, and so He did it, of course.
It seems she and Jerry promised each other to
work for Norman and the father in every possi-
ble way until they were converted; and they
did. I must say I think they are real wonder-
ful Christians, all of them. I like to hear Mr.
Decker pray better than almost any other man
in our meeting ; and as for Norman, he leads a
meeting beautifully. They say Mr. Sherrill
thought at first that he ought to pi'each ; but
now he says he is reconciled ; there is greater
need for Christian physicians than for ministers.
Mr. Sherrill has always been great friends with
all the Deckers ; you remember he was, from the
first. Norman studied with him all the time he
was manairinsr that first little bit of a restaurant

o o

in the square room of the old Decker house.
They tore down that house last month, to make
room for a carriage drive around the back of

THE PAST AND PRESENT. 435

their new house, and they say Nettie cried when
the square room was torn up.

" She has some of the quaintest furniture !
Sofas, she calls them, made out of boxes ; and a
queer old-fashioned hour-glass stand, and a bar-
rel chair, which have been sent on with all her
elegant things, to New York ; she is going to
furnish a room for Gerald and her with them ;
he made them, it seems, when they bega'n that
queer scheme. Who would have supposed it
could grow as it did ? It really seems as though
the Lord must have had a good deal to do with
it, doesn't it ? I tell you, Irene, it is wonderful
how many young men they have helped save,
those two. It seems a pity sometimes that they
could not have told us girls what they were
about and let us help ; but then, I don't know as
we would have helped if we had understood ; I
used to be such a perfect little idiot then ! Well,
it was Nettie Decker got hold of me at last.
Norman signed the pledge that night when Gen-
eral McClintock lectured here, and during the
winter he was converted ; but it was two years
after that before I made up my mind. I was
miserable all that time, too ; because I knew I
was doing wrong. And I didn't treat Nettie

436 LITTLE FISHEES: AND THEIR NETS.

wonderfully well any of the time ; but when she
came to me with her eyes shining with tears,
and said she had been praying for me ever since
that day of the flower party, I just broke down.

" O Irene, there's the carriage with the bride
and groom and Norman and Ermina. Doesn't
the bride look lovely ! I wish they had had a
public wedding and let us all see her ! But they
say General McClintock thinks weddings ought
to be very private. Never mind, we will see
her at the reception next week ; but then, she
won't be Nettie Decker; we shall have to say
good-by to her."

And Miss Lorena Barstow stood still in the
street, and shaded her eyes from the sunlight to
watoh the bridal party as the carriage wound
around the square, looking her last with tender,
loving eyes, upon Nettie Decker.

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It is a task at first, but he is a boy of his word,
and he fulfills his promise, with what results the
reader of the story will find out. It is an excellent
book for the Sunday-school.

AT HOME AND ABROAD. Stories from Tlie Pansy
Boston: D. Lothrop Company. Price, $1.00. A
score of short stories which originally appeared
in the delightful magazine, The Pansy, have been
here brought together in collected form with the
illustrations which originally accompanied them.
They are from the pens of various authors, and
are bright, instructive and entertaining.

ABOUT GIAXTS. By Isabel S\nithson. Boston :
D. Lothrop Company. Price 60 cents. In this
little volume Miss Smithson has gathered together
many curious and interesting facts relating to
real giants, or people who have grown to an ex-
traordinary size. She does not believe that there
was ever a race of giants, but that those who are
so-called are exceptional cases, due to some freak
of nature. Among those described are Cutter,
the Irish giant, who was eight feet tall, Tony
Payne, whose height exceeded seven feet, and
Chang, the Chinese giant, who was on exhibition
in this country a few years ago. The volume
contains not only accounts of giants, but also of
dwarfs, and is illustrated.

AMERICAN AUTHORS. By Amanda B. Harris.
Boston: D. Lothrop Company. Price §1.00. This
is one of the books we can heartily commend to
young readers, not only for its interest, but for
the information it contains. All lovers of books
have a natural curiosity to know something about
their writers, and the better the books, the keener
the curiosity. Miss Harris has written the various
chapters of the volume with a full appreciation of
this fact. She tells us about the earlier group of
American writers, Irving, Cooper, Prescott, Emer-
son, and Hawthorne, all of whom are gone, and
also of some of those who came later, among
them the Gary sisters, Thoreau, Lowell, Helen
Hunt, Donald G. Mitchell and others. Miss Har-
ris has a happy way of imparting information, and
the boys and girls into whose hands this little
book may fall will find it pleasant reading.

TILTIXG AT WINDMILLS : A Story of the Blue
Grass Country. By Emma M. Connelly. Boston :
D. Lothrop Company. 12mo, §1.50.

NOT since the days of •' A Fool's Errand " has so
strong and so characteristic a " border novel " been
brought to the attention of the public as is now
presented by Miss Connelly in this book which she
so aptly terms " Tilting at Windmills." Indeed, it
is questionable whether Judge Tourgee's famous
book touched so deftly and yet so practically the
real phases of the reconstruction period and the
interminable antagonisms of race and section.

The self-suflicient Boston man, a capital fellow
at heart, but tinged with the traditions and envi-
ronments of his Puritan ancestry and conditions,
coming into his strange heritage in Kentucky at
the close of the civil war, seeks to change by in-
stant manipulation all the equally strong and deep-
rooted traditions and environments of Blue Grass
society.

His ruthless conscience will allow of no com-
promise, and the people whom he seeks to prose-
lyte alike misunderstand his motives and spurn his
proflered assistance.

Presumed errors are materialized and partial
evils arc magnified. Allerton* tilts at windmills
and with the customary Quixotic results. He is,
seemingly, unhorsed in every encounter.

Miss Connelly's work in this, her first novel, will
make readers anxious to hear from her again and
it will certainly create, both in her own and other
States, a strong desire to see her next forthcoming
work announced by the same publishers in one of
their new series — her " Story of the State of Ken-
tucky."

THE AKT OF LIVING. From the Writings of
Samuel Smiles. With Introduction by the ven- '
erable Dr. leabody of Harvard University, and
Biographical Sketch by the editor, Carrie Adelaide
Cooke. Bos 'on : D. Lothrop Company. Price
#1.00.

Samuel Suites is the Benjamin Franklin of Eng-
land. His sfyings have a similar terseness, apt-
ness and f ore i ; they are directed to practical ends,
like Franklin s; they have the advantage of being-
nearer our til le and therefore more directly related
to subjects ipon which practical wisdom is of
practical use

Success in life is his subject all through, The Art
of Living; ai ;d he confesses on the very first page
that " happiness consists in the enjoyment of little
pleasures sea tered along the common path of life,
which in the sager search for some great and ex-
citing joy we are apt to overlook. It finds cleligrhf;
in the perfoi mance of common duties faithfully
and honorabl/ fulfilled."

Let the reac er go back to that quotation again and
consider how contrary it is to the spirit that under-
lies the busim :sses that are nowadays tempting men
to sudden for tune, torturing with disappointments
nearly all wh< » yield, and burdening the successful
beyond their endurance, shortening lives and mak-
ing them wea ry and most of them empty.

Is it worth while to join the mad rush for the
lottery ; or tc take the old road to slow success ?

This book < »f the chosen thoughts of a rare phil-
osopher leads to contentment as well as wisdom ;
for, when we choose the less brilliant course be-
cause we are Hire it is the best one, we have the
most complet 2 and lasting repose from anxiety.

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